16 

A6 
I9O7 


UC-NRLF 


in 


Congress  of  horticulture 
1st,  Jamestown,  1907. 

Proceedings. 


Proceedings 
Congress  of  Horticulture 

Jamestown  Exposition, 
September  23,  1907 


National  Council  of  Horticulture 


PROCEEDINGS 


OF  A 


Congress  of  Horticulture 

HELD  AT 

JAMESTOWN  EXPOSITION 
September   23,   1907 

CONDUCTED   BY  THE 

National  Council  of  Horticulture 

AT  THE  REQUEST  OF  R.  H.  SEXTON 
Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Congresses  and  Special  Events  of  the  Exposition 


H.  C.  IRISH,  Secretary 
Missouri  Botanical  Garden,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 


PATRONS— 


Publication  of  these  proceedings  has  been  made  possible  by  contributions 
from  the  following: 

BRASLAN  SEED  GROWERS'  CO.,  San  Jose,  Cal. 
W.  ATLEE  BURPEE  &  CO.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
HENRY  A.  DREER,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
ELLW ANGER  &  BARRY,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 
A.  C.  KENDEL,  Cleveland,  O. 
F.  R.  PIERSON  CO.,  Tarrytown,  N.  Y. 
STORRS  &  HARRISON  CO.,  Painesville,  O. 
VAUGHAN'S  SEED  STORE,  Chicago,  111. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

LIBRARY 


DAVIS 


NATIONAL  COUNCIL 


OF 


HORTICULTURE 


J.  C.  VAUGHAN,  Chairman 
Chicago,   Illinois 

H.  C.  IRISH,  Secretary 
Mo.  Botanical  Garden,  St.  Louis,  Mo 

DELEGATES  AT  LARGE 
PROFESSOR  W.  B.  ALWOOD,  Charlottesville,  Va. 
PROFESSOR  S.  A.  BEACH,  Ames,  Iowa 
PROFESSOR  L.  R.  TAFT,  Agricultural  College,  Mich. 
PROFESSOR  S.  B.  GREEN,  St.  Anthony  Park,  Minn. 
PROFESSOR  E.  J.  WICKSON,  Berkeley,  Calif. 
PROFESSOR  W.  W.  TRACY,  Washington,  D.  C. 
H.  C.  IRISH,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 
J.  HORACE  MCFARLAND,  Harrisburg,  Pa. 
J.  H.  HALE,  South  Glastonbury,  Conn. 

DELEGATES  FROM  SOCIETIES 

Society  of  American  Florists 

ROBERT  CRAIG,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

JOHN  K.  M.  L.  FARQUHAR,  Boston,  Mass. 

American  Association  of  Nursery 
C.  J.  MALOY,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 
CHAS.  T.  SMITH,  Concord,  Ga. 

American  Seed  Trade  Association 
C.  E.  KENDEL,  Cleveland,  Ohio 
J.  C.  VAUGHAN,  Chicago,  111. 

National  Nut  Grozvers'  Association 

PROF.  F.  H.  BURNETTE,  Baton  Rouge,  La. 
J.  F.  WILSON,  Poulan,  Ga. 


CONTENTS 


ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME 7,  8 

SOILS    ,      10 

PLANT  PATHOLOGY   17 

INSECT  ENEMIES   20 

VEGETABLE  BREEDING   , 28 

BREEDING  AND  PROPAGATION  OF  FLORISTS'  FLOWERS 32 

NUT  CULTURE  IN  OUR  RURAL  ECONOMY 42 

COMMERCIAL  GROWING  OF  GARDEN  VEGETABLES 46 

COMMERCIAL  GROWING  OF  ORNAMENTAL  PLANTS 49 

COMMERCIAL  GROWING  OF  CUT  FLOWERS 53 

FOREST  PROBLEMS   57 

HORTICULTURAL  CONDITIONS  IN   CANADA 65 

HORTICULTURE  IN  THE  EASTERN  STATES 68 

HORTICULTURE   IN   THE   CENTRAL   WEST 71 

SOUTHERN   HORTICULTURAL   CONDITIONS 75 

OUR  NATIONAL  FORESTS : . . . .  76 

Civic  HORTICULTURE  AND  Civic  IMPROVEMENT 82 

LANDSCAPE  GARDENING 87 

HORTICULTURAL  SCHOOLS  AND  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS 92 

GOVERNMENT  AID  TO  HORTICULTURE 98 

FEDERATION  AND  CO-OPERATION..  106 


PROCEEDINGS 

OF 

CONGRESS   OF    HORTICULTURE 

Jamestown  Exposition,  September  23,  1907 


Chairman  J.  C.  Vaughan  of  the  National  Council  of  Horticulture 
called  the  Congress  to  order  in  Convention  Hall,  Jamestown  Exposi- 
tion Grounds,  10  a.  m,  September  23,  1907.  He  outlined  the  origin  of 
the  call  of  the  Congress  and  stated  the  reason  for  its  existence. 

He  then  introduced  S.  A.  Robinson  of  Charlottesville,  Virginia, 
Vice-President  of  the  Virginia  State  Horticultural  Society,  who  wel- 
comed the  visitors.  Lieutenant-Governor  J.  Taylor .  Ellyson  welcomed 
the  Congress  on  behalf  of  the  Exposition  authorities.  Chairman 
Vaughan  presented  Warren  H.  Manning  as  chairman  of  the  morn- 
ing session,  owing  to  the  absence  of  J.  H.  Hale,  of  South  Glaston- 
bury,  Conn.,  who  was  detained  at  home  by  sickness.  The  papers  were 
read  as  follows : 

"Soils,"  by  Professor  F.  H.  King,  Madison,  Wis. 

"Plant  Diseases,"  by  Dr.  A.  F.  Woods,  Washington,  D.  C. 

"Insect  Enemies,"  by  A.  L.  Quaintance,  Washington,  D.  C. 

"Florists'  Flowers,"  by  W.  N.  Rudd,  Mt.  Greenwood,  111. 

The  discussion  of  all  papers  read  was  taken  up  at  the  end  of  each 
session. 

AFTERNOON    SESSION. 

The  afternoon  meeting  opened  at  2:15  with  Professor  L.  R.  Taft 
of  the  Agricultural  College,  Mich.,  in  the  chair,  in  the  absence  of 
Professor  Green,  of  St.  Anthony  Park,  Minn.  The  following  papers 
were  read: 

"Garden  Vegetables,"  by  W.  W.  Rawson,  Boston,  Mass. 

"Cut  Flowers,"  by  F.  R.  Pierson,  Tarrytown,  N.  Y. 

"Forest  Trees,"  by  Professor  F.  W.  Rane,  Boston,  Mass. 

"Local  Conditions  in  Canada,"  by  Professor  W.  T.  Macoun, 
Ottawa,  Ontario. 

"Local  Conditions  in  the  Eastern  States,"  by  John  K.  M.  L. 
Farquahr,  Boston,  Mass. 

"Local  Conditions  in  the  Central  West,"  by  L.  A.  Goodman, 
Kansas  City,  Mo. 

"Our  National  Forests,"  by  W.  L.  Hall,  Washington,  D.  C. 


6  JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

Professor  L.  R.  Taft,  H.  C.  Irish  and  J.  C.  Vaughan  made  some 
brief  remarks  on  the  work  of  the  National  Council  of  Horticulture. 

Adjournment  was  had  at  5:15 'to  the  auditorium  room  of  the  In- 
side Inn  and  on  invitation  of  Messrs.  Rawson,  Pierson,  Kendel  and 
Vaughan  the  delegates  as  a  body  proceeded  to  the  balcony  cafe  of  that 
hostelry,  where  fifty  persons  sat  down  to  dinner  at  6:00  o'clock. 
Warren  H.  Manning  presided  and  J.  C.  Olmsted  and  Mrs.  Olmsted 
were  guests  of  honor. 

EVENING   SESSION. 

Professor  S.  A.   Beach  of  Ames,  la.,  in  the  chair.     Beginning  at 

7  :30  the  following  papers  were  read : 

''Civic  Horticulture,"  by  Warren  H.  Manning,  Boston,  Mass. 

"Landscape  Gardening,"  by  John  C.  Olmsted,  Brookline,  Mass. 

"Schools  and  Experiment  Stations,"  by  Dr.  A.  C.  True,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C. 

"The  Horticultural  Press,"  by  Leonard  Barren,  New  York  City. 

"Government  Aid,"  by  Dr.  B.  T.  Galloway,  Washington,  D.  C. 

"Federation  and  Co-operation,"  by  J.  C.  Vaughan,  Chicago,  111. 

The  discussion  of  these  valuable  papers,  particularly  those  of 
Messrs.  Manning,  Olmsted,  Drs.  True  and  Galloway,  was  very  gen- 
eral and  continued  until  nearly  11  o'clock,  when  the  general  Con- 
gress adjourned. 

The  following  were  noted  among  those  in  attendance : 
Wm.    B.   Alwood,   Charlottesville,    J.  L.  Hartwell,  Dixon,  111. 

Va.  U.  P.  Hedrick,  Geneva,  N.  Y. 

H.  Augustine,  Normal,  111.  Dr.    B.    von     Herff,    New    York 

J.  Lyman  Babcock,  Norfolk,  Va.  City. 

S.  A.  Beach,  Ames,  la.  H.  L.  Hutt,  Guelph,  Ontario. 

G.  B.  Brackett,  Washington,  D.  C.    W.  N.  Hutt,  Raleigh,  N.  C. 
C.  P.  Close,  College  Park,  Md.         Mrs.  W.  N.  Hutt,  Raleigh,  N.  C. 
Mrs.    C.    P.    Close,    College   Park,    H.  C.  Irish,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Md.  Miss  Emma  Jacobson,  Chicago,  111. 

Chas.  S.  Crandall,  Urbana,  111.  L.  B.  Judson,  Ithaca,  N.  Y. 

Albert  Dickens,   Manhattan,   Kan.    C.  E.  Kendel,  Cleveland,  O. 
C.  H.  Dutcher,  Warrensburg,  Mo.    F.  H.  King,  Madison,  Wis. 
E.  M.  East,  New  Haven,  Conn.        E.     W.      Kirkpatrick,      McKinley, 
J.    K.    M.    L.    Farquhar,    Boston,        Tex. 

Mass.  W.  R.  Lazenby,  Columbus,  O. 

W.  T.  Flournoy,  Marionville,  Mo.    R.  S.  Mackintosh,  Auburn,  Ala. 
Dr.  B.  T.   Galloway,  Washington,    W.   T.   Macoun,   Ottawa,  Ontario. 

D.  C.  Warren     H.     Manning,     Boston, 

L.  A.  Goodman,  Kansas  City,  Mo.        Mass. 
Mrs.  L.  A.  Goodman,  Kansas  City,    A.   McNeill,  Ottawa,  Ontario. 

Mo.  A.  P.  Mitra,  Calcutta,  Ind. 

Wesley  Greene,  Des  Moines,  la.         John      C.      Olmsted,      Brookline, 
W.  L.  Hall,  Washington,  D.  C.  Mass. 

E.  V.  Hallock,  Queens,  N.  Y.  Mrs.  John  C.  Olmsted,  Brookline, 

Orlando  Harrison,  Berlin,  Md.  Mass. 


NATIONAL    COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  7 

F.  R.  Pierson,  Tarrytown,  N.  Y.  H.   E.   Van   Deman,   Washington, 

A.     L.     Quaintance,     Washington,  D.  C. 

D.  C.  J.  Van  Lindley,  Pomona,  N.  C. 

F.  W.  Rane,  Boston,  Mass.  J.  C.  Vaughan,  Chicago,  111. 

W.  W.  Rawson,  Boston,  Mass.  Dr.   Roger  T.  Vaughan,   Chicago, 

W.  Routzahn,  Chicago,  111.  .  111. 

W.  J.  Stewart,  Boston,  Mass.  C.  L.  Watrous,  Des  Moines,  la. 

Wm.  Stuart,  Burlington,  Vt.  H.  S.  Wayman,  Princeton,  Mo. 

L.   R.   Taft,   Agricultural   College,  John  T.  Withers,  Jersey  City,  N.  J. 

Mich.  Dr.    A.    F.    Woods,    Washington, 

Dr.  A.  C.  True,  Washington,  D.  C.  D.  C. 

MORNING  SESSION. 

Chairman  Vaughan :  Gentlemen,  it  becomes  my  duty  to  call  to 
order  this  Congress  of  Horticulture,  the  organization  of  which  is  due 
to  Mr.  Warren  H.  Manning  more  than  anyone  else.  Through  him  the 
authorities  of  the  Jamestown  Exposition  saw  fit  to  call  for  a  Congress 
of  Horticulture,  and  incidentally  asked  the  National  Council  of  Hor- 
ticulture to  arrange  for  this  Congress. 

I  hardly  need  say  that  on  national  occasions  like  this  a  great 
exposition  is  made  of  what  man  has  done  with  things  material.  It  has 
been  thought  wise  to  have  meetings  which  consider  the  laws  according 
to  which  these  things  are  made,  and  which  may  be  produced  again  at 
will.  The  Congress  of  Horticulture  will  seem  to  be  as  important  as 
an  exposition  of  plants,  fruits  and  flowers. 

At  this  Congress  we  aim  to  bring  down  to  date  a  resume  of  what 
has  been  accomplished  since  our  last  Congress;  to  survey  our  chosen 
field,  horticulture,  on  all  sides  and  at  each  to  summarize  in  a  broad 
way  about  as  follows:  First,  where  are  we?  Second,  what  are  we 
doing?  Third,  what  are  our  prospects?  The  papers  which  will  be 
presented  to  you  have  been  prepared  in  the  main  on  these  lines,  and 
I  believe  will  not  disappoint  those  who  have  traveled  far  to  be  here, 
nor  that  world-wide,  audience  which  will  later  read  them. 

Originally  the  program  was  intended  to  cover  two  days,  but  find- 
ing a  possible  conflict  the  last  day  with  the  opening  session  of  the 
Pomological  Society,  which  is  holding  its  regular  biennial  session  here, 
the  program  committee  arranged  to  close  with  the  evening  session. 

ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME. 
S.   A.   ROBINSON,   CHARLOTTESVILLE,   VA. 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Horticultural  Congress,  it 
is  a  pleasure  to  welcome  a  body  of  such  men  as  you  to  the  State  of 
Virginia,  and  it  is  eminently  proper  that  the  first  meeting  of  this  Con- 
gress should  be  near  the  spot  upon  which  probably  grew  the  first 
domestic  fruit  trees  brought  to  this  continent.  It  would  be  very  inter- 
esting to  know  how  many  of  the  78  varieties  described  by  Ray  in  1686 


8  JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

were  imported  into  this  country  about  300  years  ago.  '  No  doubt  many 
of  them  were.  I  hope  some  of  you  learned  delegates  will  enlighten 
us  with  regard  to  what  they  were  and  when  they  were  brought  here. 
We,  of  Virginia,  have  such  an  abiding  faith  in  horticulture  that  we 
propose  to  get  into  close  company  with  the  best  of  you,  and  to  know 
you  better  and  to  have  you  know  us  better.  Virginia  was  fourteenth 
in  the  number  of  trees  at  the  last  count  of  apple  trees  in  the  states 
of  the  Union,  but  only  fifth  in  the  production  of  apples,  so  it  is  doing 
pretty  well.  I  am  confident  that  she  can  produce  as  choice  fancy 
apples  and  as  many  to  the  acre,  within  her  area,  as  any  state  in  the 
Union,  so  you  ought  to  feel  that  you  are  in  a  country  where  you  are 
at  home.  That  is  just  what  we  want. 

I  am  going  to  make  the  claim  which  some  of  you  may  dispute,  but 
I  do  it  for  the  purpose  of  learning;  namely,  that  Virginia  has  the 
record  of  the  world  for  the  length  of  time  the  trees  have  been  grow- 
ing and  the  commercial  value  of  the  output.  There  is  an  orchard 
of  fifteen  trees  at  Covesville,  Albermarle  County,  in  Virginia,  whose 
trees  have  been  bearing'  for  over  eighty  years.  One  year  a  single  tree 
produced  22  bushels  of  apples  which  were  sold  for  $5.00  per  bushel  at 
the  tree.  The  fifteen  trees  have  produced  $700.00  worth  of  apples  in 
one  year.  Those  old  trees  are  bearing  to-day.  I  visited  them  about 
four  days  ago  and  they  are  worthy  of  being  handled  by  the  Hood 
River  Apple  Growers'  Union.  Their  apples  will  average  $50  a  tree 
this  year.  Until  within  three  years,  they  were  never  sprayed,  never 
properly  pruned,  never  fertilized  in  any  way  nor  cultivated,  and  had 
no  attention  whatever.  Those  men  planted  trees  and  trusted  to  Provi- 
dence and  the  favorable  soil  and  the  genial  climate  of  that  part  of  the 
state  to  secure  them  a  remarkable  profit.  Much  of  our  area  will  pro- 
duce good  commercial  fruit,  but  there  is  no  part  of  the  country  that 
has  a  very  large  area  that  will  produce  the  choicest  fancy  fruit,  which 
fact  you  probably  know  better  than  I. 

Leaving  this  question  of  rivalry  aside,  which  I  merely  bring  up 
to  show  what  has  been  done,  I  want  to  say  that  you  are  most  welcome 
here,  and  I  want  to  tell  you  that  the  hospitality .  of  Virginia  shines 
brightest  in  its  homes.  You  must  visit  us  at  our  homes  and  come  under 
the  enchantment  of  the  sweet  voices  of  the  graceful,  beautiful  and 
winsome  women  of  this  state  in  order  to  feel  the  full  spell  of  the  hos- 
pitality of  Virginia.  If  you  will  linger  long  enough  to  do  that,  you 
will  indeed  taste  of  the  lotus  of  Virginia's  hospitality  and  we  shall 
expect  you  to  return,  because  those  who  once  tasted,  hunger  for  it 
ever  after. 

ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME, 
J.  TAYLOR  ELLYSON,  LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR  OF  VIRGINIA. 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen,  you  had  the  courage  of  a  very  lofty 
aim  when  you  undertook  to  have  a  Congress,  a  National  Congress  of 
Horticulture,  but  you  had  an  aim  worthy  of  your  best  endeavors,  and 


NATIONAL    COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  9 

you  have  come  together  in  the  hope  of  achieving  results  that  will 
redound  to  the  greatest  good  of  that  which  you  represent.  We  have 
long  ago  learned,  certainly  men  of  my  age,  that  strength  and  useful- 
ness are  not  always  in  numbers.  Who  can  tell  who  commanded  at 
Balaklava  the  army  of  men  in  that  famous  charge  who  in  Tenny- 
son's poem  have  won  an  immortality  of  fame?  And  so  it  is,  whether 
en  the  field  of  battle  or  in  the  more  peaceful  contests  in  which  we 
are  now  engaged,  it  is  the  men  who  do  something  that  will  count,  and 
the  men  who  have  done  great  things,  although  not  always  recognized, 
have  been  the  men  who  sit  before  me  and  those  whom  you  represent. 
Look  about  you.  If  a  member  of  this  organization  who  happens  this 
morning  to  be  your  presiding  officer  desired  you  to  know  what  he  has 
done  he  would  have  to  adopt  the  motto  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren  and 
say :  "If  you  wish  to  see  my  monument,  look  about  you."  And  you 
will  find  in  the  beautiful  creations  along  the  line  of  his  chosen  work 
on  these  grounds  some  of  the  most  charming  results  of  that  most 
charming  department  of  work,  landscape  gardening. 

I  am  very  glad  to  be  able  to  welcome  you  on  the  part  of  the  Ex- 
position. I  feel  that  it  will  not  be  fair  to  occupy  your  attention  to- 
day, or  to  interrupt  your  discussion,  more  than  to  tell  you  that  we 
are  glad  to  see  you  and  to  express  the  hope  that  you  will  remain 
with  us  until  you  have  known  something  of  what  we  have  here  to 
show  you,  and  I  think  that  when  you  shall  have  done  that,  you  will 
be  able  to  say  of  many  of  the  departments,  what  was  said  of  our 
historical  collection  by  one  of  the  most  eminent  men  in  this  country 
who  had  the  pleasure  of  visiting  it  a  few  days  ago  and  who  is  a  high 
authority  on  such  work,  that  there  never  had  been  gathered  in  this 
country  a  finer  collection  of  historical  material  than  we  have  in  the 
History  Building  on  these  grounds,  and  so  you  will  find  it  in  other 
collections.  Take  time  to  look  at  it,  and  I  am  sure  that  you  will  en- 
joy it.  Above  all,  be  certain  that  whatever  else  may  befall,  you  will 
not  fail  to  have  had  a  warm  and  generous  welcome  on  behalf  of 
the  Jamestown  Exposition  Company. 

Chairman  Vaughan  :  Mr.  J.  H.  Hale,  our  chairman  for  the  first 
session,  being  absent,  Mr.  Warren  H.  Manning  has  consented  to  pre- 
side. 

Chairman  Manning :  We  will  take  up  the  papers  consecutively,  and 
call  upon  Professor  F.  H.  King,  Madison.  Wis.,  for  his  paper  on 
"Soils."  I  wish  to  say  that  Professor  King  and  Professor  Babcock 
were  the  pioneers  in  the  study  of  soils,  and  it  is  largely  from  this 
investigation  that  the  Government  Department  of  Soils  has  grown,  and 
those  who  know  the  vast  amount  of  benefit  that  comes  from  the 
Department  publications  to  all  who  have  to  do  with  outdoor  affairs 
will  recognize  how  important  this  pioneer  work  was.  Professor  King's 
book  on  soils,  in  the  Rural  Science  Series,  and  also  the  many  pamph- 
lets in  the  Government  Department  upon  the  same  subject  are  also 
an  authority  upon  farm  buildings,  ventilation,  and  other  matters,  as 
well  as  upon  soils. 


10          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS.  OF   HORTICULTURE 

SOILS. 

THEIR  PRODUCTIVITY  AS  INFLUENCED  BY  COMPOSITION  AND  STRUCTURE. 

F.  H.  KING,  MADISON,  Wis. 

Soils  are  an  aggregation  of  rock  and  mineral  fragments  carrying 
an  admixture  of  organic  debris,  together  with  substances  in  soluble 
and  colloidal  condition.  The  productivity  of  soils  is  determined  by 
their  composition,  by  their  structure,  by  their  climate,  and  by  the  life 
activities  within  them.  By  composition  we  refer  to  their  mineral  and 
chemical  nature ;  by  their  structure  we  refer  to  the  size  of  the  soil 
grains  and  the  segregation  of  them;  by  their  climate  we  refer  to 
their  water  content,  their  temperature,  their  aeration,  their  drainage; 
by  life  activities  we  refer  to  the  interaction  of  the  roots  of  plants 
and  micro-organisms  upon  one  another,  upon  the  soil  grains,  upon  the 
organic  matter,  upon  substances  in  solution  and  upon  colloids. 

COMPOSITION. 

The  composition  of  soils,  and  their  structure  so  far  as  it  influences 
weight,  determines  the  absolute  amount  of  plant  food  elements  per 
unit  volume,  per  cubic  foot,  per  acre-foot  or  per  acre-four-feet,  which 
is  the  depth  to  which  most  crops  are  able  to  feed,  to  which  they  send 
their  roots  if  all  the  factors  of  productivity  are  at  their  best.  Com- 
position, therefore,  determines  the  endurance  of  a  field,  the  outermost 
limit  of  its  productive  capacity.  This  statement  is  not  in  accord  with 
the  teaching  of  our  national  Department  of  Agriculture  where  it 
affirms : 

"That  practically  all  soils  contain  sufficient  plant  food  for  good 
crop  yields,  that  the  supply  will  be  indefinitely  maintained  and  that 
this  actual  yield  of  plants  adapted  to  the  soil  depends  mainly,  under 
favorable  climatic  conditions,  upon  cultural  methods  and  suitable  crop 
rotations." 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  statement  in  recent  years,  designed  to 
direct  agricultural  practice  and  issued  by  high  authority,  is  further 
from  the  truth  than  thist  Few  statements  could  be  more  misleading 
and  land  agents  are  using  it,  both  in  good  faith  and  unscrupu- 
lously, to  sell  at  high  price  low  grade  lands.  Much  nearer  the  truth 
is  the  statement :  No  soils  contain  sufficient  plant  food  for  maximum 
yields  when  all  other  factors  are  at  their  best;  and  the  best  cultural 
methods,  with  rotation  of  crops,  only  hasten  the  exhaustion  of  soils. 

The  Department's  teaching  has  resulted  from  confusing  plant  food 
elements  with  plant  food.  Analysis  has  demonstrated  that  primary 
rock,  crushed  to  the  fineness  of  soil,  may  carry  per  acre-four-feet  78 
tons  of  potassium,  250  tons  of  calcium,  133  tons  of  magnesium  and 
even  8  tons  of  phosphorus.  So,  too,  an  acre-four-feet  of  good  soil 
may  carry  as  much  as  100  tons  of  potassium,  45  tons  of  calcium,  35 
tons  of  magnesium  and  even  12  tons  of  phosphorus,  and  there  is  this 
much  foundation  in  fact  for  the  statement  criticized.  But  these  enor- 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL    OF   HORTICULTURE  11 

mous  amounts  of  plant  food  elements  present  in  the  root  zone  of  field 
crops  are  no  more  to  be  regarded  as  plant  food  for  those  crops  than 
they  are  food  for  the  animals  feeding  upon  pasture  grass. 

The  food  of  plants,  derived  from  the  soil,  is  only  certain  substances 
which  are  dissolved  in  the  soil  moisture  or  which  are  carried  in  the 
soil  in  a  form  which  may  be  readily  so  taken  up ;  and  the  amounts 
of  these,  present  in  the  root  zone  of  field  crops  at  any  one  time,  is 
relatively  very  small  when  compared  with  the  amounts  of  plant  food 
elements  from  which  they  are  derived.  Much  more  is  a  soil  like  a 
pasture  where  plant  food  grows  than  like  a  bank  or  granary  where 
it  is  stored,  and  just  as  a  rich  pasture  may  produce  sufficient  grass 
to  carry  a  large  herd  so  may  a  fertile  soil  produce,  from  day  to  day, 
plant  food  sufficient  for  good  crops.  Just  as  pastures  differ  in  the 
amounts  of  herbage  on  the  ground  and  in  the  amounts  they  are  able  to 
add  to  this  as  it  is  fed  away,  so  do  fields  differ,  both  in  the  amounts 
of  plant  food  present  in  the  root  zone  at  any  one  time  and  in  the 
amounts  they  are  able  to  add  as  this  is  withdrawn.  Our  own  observa- 
tions, published  by  the  Bureau  of  Soils,  have  demonstrated  that  four 
good  soils,  observed  to  produce  two  and  a  half  times  the  yield  per 
acre  of  corn  and  potatoes  that  four  poorer  soils  did  under  identical 
treatment,  also  gave  up,  when  washed  three  minutes  in  five  times 
their  weight  of  pure  water,  2.58  times  as  much  plant  food.  Not 
only  was  there  this  difference  in  the  amounts  of  plant  food  car- 
ried in  water-soluble  form  in  the  best  and  in  the  poorer  soils,  but  the 
amounts  of  this  same  plant  food  taken  out  of  like  areas  of  field  by 
like  numbers  and  kinds  of  plants  during  the  same  time  was  3.2  times 
as  great  in  the  sap  of  the  plants  which  gave  the  highest  yields.  Such 
observations  would  appear  to  fully  justify  the  general  conviction  that 
increased  yields  should  be  directly  attributed  to  better  feeding  and 
that  better  feeding  is  a  direct  result  of  larger  amounts  of  plant  food 
available  to  the  crop.  It  is  taught,  however,  by  the  Bureau  of  Soils, 
that  all  soil  solutions  are  sensibly  identical  in  composition  and  in 
concentration ;  that  they  are  strong  enough  for  large  yields  and  that 
this  strength  will  be  indefinitely  maintained.  From  these  conclusions 
the  Bureau  further  teaches  that  mineral  fertilizers,  green  and  stable 
manures  and  a  good  rotation  of  crops  owe  their  efficiency  to  the 
power  they  have  of  neutralizing  toxic  principles  which  tend  to  accumu- 
late in  cultivated  soils,  rather  than  to  any  power  of  increasing  avail- 
able plant  food,  an  abundance  of  which,  at  all  times  and  in  all  soils, 
is  held  to  be  present. 

While  it  is  true  that  good  soils  may  yield  to  pure  water  two, 
three  and  more  times  the  amounts  of  plant  food  that  poorer  soils 
will,  and  while  the  absolute  differences  may  be  as  3,200  pounds  per 
acre-four-feet  to  1,200  pounds,  yet  these  quantities  are  so  small  in  pro- 
portion to  the  total  water  present  in  the  soil  that  one  may  in  truth 
say,  from  the  standpoint  of  the  chemical  balance,  as  Professor  Whit- 
ney does,  that  the  composition  and  concentration  of  all  soil  solutions 
are  sensibly  the  same.  Nevertheless  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  soil 
solutions  are  measurably  different,  both  in  composition  and  con- 


12          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

centration,  and  from  the  standpoint  of  plant  functions  they  must  be 
profoundly  so  for  organic  life  is  almost  inconceivably  sensitive  to 
small  quantities  of  matter. 

Our  published  results  show,  too,  that  we  are  able  to  recover  from 
the  surface  four  feet  of  good  soil  as  much  water-soluble  plant  food 
of  both  potassium  and  phosphorus  as  would  be  removed  from  a  field 
by  nine  40-bushel  crops  of  wheat,  and  from  poorer  soil  as  much  as 
would  be  removed  by  six  such  crops,  and  here  again  is  what  has 
been  thought  a  safe  foundation  for  the  contention  that  even  in  water- 
soluble  form  the  poorest  soils  contain  plant  food  enough  for  good 
yields.  So  there  is,  in  absolute  quantity  but  not  in  available  quantity. 
For  example,  a  three-horse  tread-power  may  be  in  such  condition  that 
when  one  horse  is  put  upon  it  no  work  is  done ;  adding  a  second 
horse  may  yield  only  half  an  available  horse-power,  but  when  the 
third  horse  is  put  in  place  its  whole  weight  may  yield  effective  power 
so  that  the  available  work  becomes  three  times  what  it  was  with 
two  horses.  So  it  may  be  with  soils.  Plant  food  enough  for  per- 
haps many  crops  must  be  present  in  order  that  enough  for  one  may 
become  available. 

So  far  as  we  know,  either  from  published  data  or  on  a  priori 
grounds,  there  is  no  foundation  for  the  hope  that  the  supply  of  plant 
food  in  soils  may  be  indefinitely  maintained  simply  by  good  tillage 
and  suitable  crop  rotations  which  make  positive  additions  only  of 
nitrogen  to  the  soil.  The  only  way  Nature  has  ever  produced  crops, 
and  this  is  the  way  she  has  always  maintained  soil  fertility,  has  been 
to  return  to  the  field  the  whole  crop,  and  working  along  this  line 
for  a  thousand  years  together  she  never  did  and  never  can  bring 
all  her  soils  to  an  equality  in  productive  capacity  as  should  be  the 
case  if  all  soils  carry  an  abundance  of  plant  food. 

A  very  simple  calculation  based  on  well  established  data  will  show 
that  an  exhaustion  of  the  plant  food  elements,  large  as  these  amounts 
are,  must  necessarily  follow  any  system  of  cropping  which  involves  no 
return  to  the  soil  other  than  nitrogen.  The  amounts  of  plant  food 
removed  by  certain  crops  are  definitely  known ;  the  absolute  amounts  of 
plant  food  elements  carried  by  good  soils  are  known  and,  taking  20  tons 
of  potassium  per  acre-foot,  which  is  about  the  amount  carried,  a  quan- 
tity equal  to  the  whole  of  this  would  be  removed  in  about  1,400  years 
by  wheat  yields  of  40  bushels  per  acre ;  and  the  entire  amount  of  phos- 
phorus carried  by  the  surface  foot  is  equivalent  to  only  about  400  such 
crops.  Careful  records  have  shown  that  the  Mississippi  river  carries  out 
to  sea  annually  enough  material  to  lower  its  entire  drainage  area  one 
foot  each  4,000  to  6,000  years,  which  means  that  the  surface  foot  of 
soil  may  be  completely  removed  and  replaced  by  a  corresponding  layer 
from  below  at  the  same  rate ;  but  the  rate  of  removal  of  potassium 
by  a  40-bushel  crop  of  wheat  is  three  to  four  times  as  rapid  as  this, 
and  the  crop  exhaustion  for  phosphorus  is  ten  to  fifteen  times  as  rapid 
as  rock  is  being  converted  into  new  soil  on  the  average,  over  the 
Mississippi  valley.  Were  Professor  Whitney's  contention  true  the 
mean  productive  capacity  of  the  soils  of  the  Mississippi  valley  should 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  13 

be  no  more  than  three  to  four  bushels  of  wheat  per  acre,  for  this  is  the 
rate  at  which  rock  weathering  and  erosion  are  supplying  phosphorus 
to  the  soil  from  below. 

* 

STRUCTURE. 

From  the  standpoint  of  structure  soils  differ  very  widely,  both  in 
the  extent  of  their  internal  surface  and  in  the  character  and  extent  of 
Ihe  segregation  of  their  particles.  These  differences  are  fundamental 
and  very  important  in  determining  the  relative  productive  capacity  and 
in  directing  agricultural  practice.  An  acre-four-feet  of  one  foot  gran- 
ite blocks  would  possess  an  internal  surface  of  24  acres  to  which 
water  might  adhere,  upon  which  plant  food  might  develop  and  where 
it  might  be  stored,  over  which  the  roots  of  plants  might  spread  and 
feed,  and  where  soil  organisms  might  dwell.  To  reduce  the  diameters 
of  these  cubes  from  one  to  one-thousandth  of  a  foot  would  increase 
the  internal  surface  one  thousandfold,  making  it  aggregate  24,000 
acres  per  acre  of  field.  But  even  this  surface  is  too  small  to  maintain 
a  high  productive  capacity.  Our  coarsest  sandy  soils  possess  an  in- 
ternal surface  per  acre-four-feet  exceeding  45  square  miles  per  acre 
of  field;  our  loams,  270  square  miles,  while  our  finest  clay  types 
possess  an  internal  surface  exceeding  1,300  square  miles  per  acre  of 
field.  It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  there  must  be  wide  differences  in 
the  productive  capacity  of  soils  due  to  differences  of  internal  surface 
alone,  even  when  their  chemical  natures  may  be  identical.  This  must 
be  so  because  where  there  is  more  surface  more  water  can  be  retained, 
plant  food  may  form  more  rapidly  and  more  may  be  stored  and  held 
in  reserve  and  even  accumulated  during  intervals  of  small  demand  as 
well  as  retained  against  loss  by  leaching. 

The  innermost  portion  of  water  films  investing  soil  grain  sur- 
faces, in  our  judgment,  is  held  there  with  so  much  force  as  to  be 
little  subject  to  change,  by  either  drainage  or  capillary  movement,  and 
also  becomes  highly  charged  with  plant  food  which  likewise  is  strongly 
retained,  escaping  only  by  the  slow  process  of  diffusion  when  the  roots 
of  plants  are  placed  in  contact  with  the  soil  grain  surfaces  or  when 
the  excess  of  hydrostatic  and  capillary  portions  of  water  are  moving 
by.  We  have  found,  for  example,  that  when  a  chemically  cleaned 
sand  was  charged  with  a  solution  of  potassium  nitrate  ten  repeated 
washings  in  twice  its  weight  of  distilled  water  left  in  the  films  of 
moisture  retained  by  the  sand  grains  enough  of  the  nitrate  to  repre- 
sent 244  pounds  per  acre-four-feet.  Plant  food  so  retained  by  soils 
may  still  be  available  to  crops  for  their  root  hairs  are  similarly  invested 
with  water  films  and  when  placed  in  apposition  with  the  soil  grains 
the  water  films  become  common  to  the  two  and  simple  diffusion  per- 
mits the  root  to  feed  upon  the  plant  food  so  retained. 

This  brings  me  to  consider  a  principle  underlying  proper  land 
drainage.  It  is  very  important  that  when  rain  falls  upon  a  field  the 
excess  water  remain  only  just  long  enough  on  its  way  through  the 
open  water  passages  to' saturate  the  soil;  anything  longer  than  this 


14         JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

provides  time  and  opportunity  for  the  most  valuable  plant  food  mate- 
rials carried  in  the  water  films  about  the  soil  grains  to  diffuse  out  into 
the  moving  water  and  so  become  lost  in  the  drainage.  Thus  we  have 
an  explanation  of  a*  seeming  paradox,  namely :  properly  drained  fields 
lose  less  of  their  soluble  plant  food  by  underdrainage  than  do  those 
poorly  drained. 

Next  in  importance  to  internal  soil  surface,  among  the  physical 
factors  which  determine  the  productive  capacity  of  soils,  is  the  segre- 
gation of  their  soil  particles  into  granules,  crumbs  or  kernels.  With- 
out it  all  but  the  extremely  sandy  soils  must  be  sterile,  even  though 
they  carry  an  abundance  of  plant  food.  Without  segregation  we  have 
the  puddled  soil  or  clay,  but  with  segregation  highly  developed  we 
have  the  light,  deep,  tractable,  mellow  fertile  loams  so  congenial  to  the 
widest  range  of  crops. 

The  low  producing  power,  or  absolute  sterility,  so  invariably  asso- 
ciated with  puddled  soils  and  with  those  too  close  in  texture,  we 
believe  to  be  primarily  due  to  a  lack  of  available  moisture,  notwith- 
standing the  seeming  paradox  that  they  are  carrying  an  excess  of  it. 
It  is  a  familiar  fact  that  crops  wilt  and  cease  to  grow  in  close  textured 
clayey  soils  still  carrying  8  to  12  per  cent  of  water,  while  they  may 
grow  luxuriantly  in  coarse  sandy  soils  possessing  but  1  to  3  per  cent. 
So,  too,  we  often  find  desert  types  of  vegetation  growing  in  humid 
climates  on  extremely  close  grained  clayey  soils  and  more  strangely 
still  in  peat  swamps  where  the  water  content  is  excessively  high.  To 
understand  these  facts  it  must  be  remembered  that  there  is  a  certain 
thickness  of  water  film  which  is  held  so  firmly  to  the  soil  grain  sur- 
faces as  to  be  wholly  unavailable  to  the  crop.  Portions  of  this  layer 
cannot  be  driven  off  completely  even  at  the  temperature  of  boiling 
water.  When  all  of  the  facts  shall  have  been  worked  out  we  believe 
it  will  be  found  that  the  thickness  of  the  unavailable  water  about  the 
surface  of  soil  grains  is  essentially  the  same  whether  these  be  large, 
as  in  the  coarse  sandy  types,  or  very  small  as  in  the  finest  clays ;  and 
if  this  is  the  case  the  absolute  amount  of  unavailable  water  must 
increase  as  the  internal  surface  of  the  soil  becomes  greater  and  as  the 
diameter  of  the  soil  particles  decreases. 

The  coarse  sandy  soils,  with  their  relatively  small  internal  sur- 
face, carry  a  correspondingly  small  amount  of  unavailable  water  and 
hence  in  them  small  rainfalls  in  dry  times  have  a  relatively  high 
efficiency.  So,  too,  must  soluble  plant  food  and  fertilizers,  when 
applied  to  them,  for  the  same  reason,  have  a  relatively  high  efficiency. 
But  in  the  finest  clay  soils,  especially  if  they  are  not  strongly  granu- 
lated, the  amount  of  unavailable  water  is  very  large  and  hence  it  is 
that  heavier  rainfall  during  drought  periods  and  more  liberal  applica- 
tions of  fertilizers  are  required  to  produce  the  same  relative  increase. 
But  it  is  possible  to  have  the  finest  clay  soils  so  completely  puddled, 
or  separated  into  their  ultimate  grains,  and  the  effective  soil  surface 
thereby  so  enormously  increased,  by  the  minuteness  of  the  particles, 
that  nearly  the  whole  of  the  water,  even  when  the  soil  is  saturated, 
becomes  unavailable  to  plants  and  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  water 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  15 

films  are  too  thin  and  therefore  too  strongly  held  to  be  removed. 
From  the  standpoint  of  plant  function,  we  have  the  paradoxical  condi- 
tion of  a  sandy  soil,  containing  perhaps  one  per  cent  of  water,  being 
effectively  more  moist  than  a  puddled  clay  soil  containing  20  to  30  per 
cent  or  than  a  peaty  soil  containing  perhaps  40  to  50  per  cent. 

But  when  the  finest  clay  soils  are  put  in  a  highly  granular  condi- 
tion, with  the  kernels  having  the  order  of  coarseness  of  the  sandy 
soils,  these  compound  grains  may  themselves  become  invested  with 
water  films  which  are  thick  and  therefore  available  to  crops.  By  such 
a  change  of  structure,  therefore,  the  clay  soils  not  only  retain  their 
enormous  surfaces,  carrying  water  in  which  plant  food  may  develop 
and  accumulate,  but  by  the  bunching  of  the  fine  particles  there  has 
been  superadded  to  the  already  enormous  surface  an  additional  large 
area  which  now  is  able  to  retain  much  water  in  available  form  and  so 
advantageously  placed  that  the  plant  food  from  the  moisture  within 
the  soil  kernel  can  diffuse  out  into  the  available  film  and  thus  also 
become  available  to  the  crop.  Tilth,  or  the  physical  condition  of  the 
soil,  then,  must  be  of  very  great  importance  in  determining  the  pro- 
ductive capacity  of  fields,  first  of  all  because  it  limits  the  availability 
of  the  soil  moisture  and  through  this,  at  the  same  time,  the  availability 
of  plant  food  itself.  Without  the  coarse  grained  texture  and  openness 
of  structure  there  must  be  imperfect  drainage,  inadequate  soil  ventila- 
tion and  a  lack  of  freedom  for  movement  and  of  room  for  the  proper 
development  of  either  the  roots  of  crops  or  the  multitudes  of  soil 
organisms  whose  activity  is  so  indispensable  to  the  maintenance  of  soil 
fertility.  The  full  significance  of  this  openness  of  structure  may  be 
better  appreciated  when  it  is  stated  that  exact  measurement  has  shown 
that  when  soils  of  the  coarse  sandy,  loamy  and  finest  clay  types  arc 
reduced  to  their  single  grain  condition  the  rates  of  air  and  water 
movement  through  them  become  as  900  to  36  to  1;  the  flow  being  900 
times  as  rapid  through  the  coarse  sandy  soil  as  through  the  finest  clay 
type.  Put  in  another  way,  if  2.5  hours  are  required  to  remove  an 
excess  of  rainfall  from  the  coarse  sandy  soil,  then  four  months  would 
be  insufficient  to  effect  the  same  result  in  a  field  of  the  finest  clay 
type  when  in  the  condition  of  its  single  grain  structure ;  while  some 
four  days  would  be  required  for  the  loamy  soil,  and  this  is  longer  than 
the  average  interval  between  rains  in  humid  climates.  More  than  this, 
in  the  properly  open  soils  there  is  but  2.5  hours  between  rainfalls  dur- 
ing which  diffusion  can  carry  the  soluble  plant  food  into  the  water 
draining  away,  while  in  the  other  condition  this  loss  by  drainage  is 
continuous. 

If  a  high  productive  capacity  of  fields  is  to  be  secured  and  main- 
tained then  in  some  manner  must  all  soils  be  given  an  openness  of 
structure  approaching  that  possessed  by  our  coarse  sandy  types.  The 
factor  of  paramount  importance  in  securing  prime  tilth,  or  the  best 
possible  structure,  is  an  abundance  of  organic  matter  deeply  and  thor- 
oughly incorporated  in  the  soil;  and  with  this  must  always  be  asso- 
ciated ample  underdrainage  which  fortunately  generally  exists  where 
structure  is  right.  For  ordinary  field  conditions  this  incorporation  of 


16         JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

organic  matter  must  be  secured  through  deep  plowing  which  aims  to 
turn  all  waste  refuse  and  occasionally  green  and  stable  manures.  Go- 
ing with  this  practice  there  must  be  an  intelligent  rotation  of  crops 
which  includes  the  legumes,  to  accumulate  nitrogen  from  the  air,  and 
to  fix  it  deeply  in  the  soil  in  their  tubercle  and  root  growth ;  which 
includes  the  grasses  having  dense  root  systems  tending  to  both  deeply 
and  finely  divide  the  soil  by  the  close  ramification  of  their  roots  and 
to  make  the  granules  so  formed  more  rigid  by  the  cementing  action 
of  substances  rendered  soluble  by  the  carbonic  acid  transpired  through 
their  roots  and  which  accumulate  in  the  granules  by  diffusion  to  become 
precipitated  there  as  the  soil  is  deeply  and  thoroughly  dried  by  the 
action  of  the  roots  in  supplying  the  plant  with  water.  The  cereal, 
vegetable,  fiber  and  sugar  crops  exert  but  a  feeble  structure-building 
effect  upon  the  soil.  They  tend  rather  to  weaken  soil  structure  by  the 
removal  of  the  soluble  plant  food  ingredients  which  have  accumulated 
there,  thus  rendering  it  both  structurally  defective  and  deficient  in 
immediately  available  plant  food.  These  last  crops,  therefore,  make 
chiefly  the  financial  earnings  while  the  grasses  and  legumes  are  largely 
restorative  but  may  be  earning  crops  as  well.  It  must  be  remembered, 
however,  that  their  restorative  effect  lies  wholly  in  their  power  to 
mend  structure  and  in  adding  the  single  element  nitrogen  to  the  soil. 
Other  plant  food  elements  they  never  add  but  may,  to  some  extent, 
help  to  make  them  more  available  and  thus  permit  larger  yields  to 
follow  them,  but  whose  removal,  when  no  return  is  made  to  the  soil, 
hastens  its  ultimate  exhaustion. 

Composition,  first,  and  structure,  second,  are  the  master  factors 
which  determine  the  productive  capacity  of  fields.  Let  me  close  by 
illustrating  this  through  the  practice  of  composting  soils  preparatory 
to  their  use  on  the  benches  of  forcing  houses.  With  the  practical  man 
his  first  choice  is  a  rich  sod,  his  second  a  rich  mellow  loam.  To  the 
soil  he  adds  from  a  third  to  a  half  its  volume  of  good  stable  manure, 
perhaps  supplemented  with  phosphates,  lim'e  and  potash.  The  whole 
is  thoroughly  mixed,  put  in  good  moisture  condition  and  given  oppor- 
tunity for  fermentation  under  conditions  of  frequent  turning.  By  this 
treatment  he  secures  a  soil  whose  structure  is  ideal  and  which  is  at 
the  same  time  carrying  a  heavy  charge  of  plant  food  in  highly  avail- 
able form.  A  strong  blue-grass  or  timothy  sod  is  itself  a  guarantee 
of  thorough  and  strong  crumb  structure.  Because  the  volume  of  the 
soil  is  small  it  is  imperative  that  the  root  system  be  brought  in  effec- 
tive contact  with  the  whole  of  it,  that  the  available  surface  shall  be 
as  large  as  possible  and  that  the  soil  with  which  the  roots  come  in 
contact  shall  be  heavily  charged  with  essential  plant  food.  The 
decay  of  the  manure  in  contact  with  the  soil  grains  leads  to  their 
becoming  highly  charged  with  plant  food  in  water-soluble  form. 
Quite  likely,  too,  at  the  time  of  planting,  the  manure  and  other  sub- 
stances will  be  supplemented  by  sodium  nitrate. 

It  seems  idle  to  think  that  soils  like  this,  selected  at  the  start 
because  they  are  in  evident  good  condition  and  reasonably  productive, 
should  require  such  excessive  amounts  of  manure  and  fertilizers  to 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  17 

simply  neutralize  toxic  principles  which  may  be  present  in  them,  and 
we  may  be  reasonably  certain  that  we  are  dealing  simply  with  an 
abundance  of  plant  food  in  highly  available  form,  placed  under  ideal 
conditions  for  the  crop  to  put  itself  in  touch  with  it. 

Chairman  Manning:  Shall  we  take  up  the  discussion  of  Professor 
King's  paper? 

Mr.  Vaughan:  We  have  so  many  papers,  and  the  program  is  pos- 
sibly going  to  be  so  long  that  we  could  better  defer  the  discussion 
until  opportunity  comes. 

Chairman  Manning :  Is  it  the  sense  of  the  meeting  that  the 
discussion  of  the  papers  be  postponed  to  the  end  of  the  session? 

Motion  to  postpone  was  carried. 

PLANT  PATHOLOGY. 
A.  F.  WOODS,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

Your  secretary  has  asked  me  to  review  as  far  as  possible  in  ten 
or  fifteen  minutes  our  actual  knowledge  of  plant  diseases,  the  best 
methods  of  combating  them,  the  progress  that  has  been  made,  together 
with  a  suggestion  or  two  as  to  some  improvements  that  may  be 
expected  in  the  future.  I  have  accepted  the  invitation,  knowing  fully 
that  I  could  not  in  so  short  a  time  begin  to  cover  so  much  ground 
with  a  sufficient  degree  of  thoroughness  to  give  an  adequate  idea  even 
of  the  most  important  bearings  of  pathology  on  horticulture,  but  I 
concluded  that  the  committee  must  have  had  in  mind  that  I  would 
use  their  request  as  an  illustration  of  the  greatest  failing,  not  only  in 
pathological  investigation  but  in  the  application  of  methods  recom- 
mended for  the  control  of  diseases,  namely,  too  much  haste  and  lack 
of  thoroughness.  These  are  failings  incident  to  work  in  a  new  coun- 
try under  great  pressure,  where  the  field  is  large  and  the  workers  few. 
There  has  been  a  good  measure  of  economic  justification  for  the  mis- 
takes of  the  past,  and  they  are  teaching  us  valuable  lessons  for  our 
guidance  in  the  future.  What  we  need  now  to  do  is  to  study  care- 
fully these  successes  and  failures  and  determine  as  accurately  as  may 
be  possible  their  causes  as  a  basis  for  improved  practice.  The  old 
conditions  are  rapidly  changing.  The  new  times  require  more  careful 
and  intensive  methods. 

One-crop  farming,  too  short  and  unwise  crop  rotations,  improper 
methods  of  fertilizing  and  culture,  with  destruction  of  humus  and  the 
life  and  fertility  of  the  soil,  careless  methods  of  propagation  and  seed 
selection,  the  use  of  varieties  not  adapted  to  soil  and  climate,  or  other 
limiting  conditions,  are  responsible  for  loss  from  diseases  in  a  larger 
degree  than  is  realized.  An  orange,  a  plum,  or  peach  or  apple  or  any 
other  tree  or  shrub,  whose  cambium  responds  to  a  few  warm  days  in 
winter  or  early  spring,  is  not  a  safe  variety  to  plant  in  localities 
where  such  warm  periods  occur.  Plants  of  northern  range,  accus' 
tomed  to  respond  to  lower  initial  heat  stimulus,  are  thus  subject  tc 


18          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

winter  injury  in  more  southern  latitudes.  On  the  other  hand,  plants 
of  southern  range  planted  north  start  later,  are  less  subject  to  late 
frosts,  but  may  be  injured  by  early  frosts.  These  cold  injuries  are 
often  hardly  noticeable,  but  they  are  sufficient  to  weaken  the  plant  and 
open  the  way  for  trunk  cankers  and  numerous  other  parasitic  diseases 
which  the  trees  could  otherwise  resist. 

A  soil  slightly  too  acid  or  alkaline  for  a  particular  variety,  though 
not  enough  to  prevent  growth,  may  nevertheless  weaken  the  root 
system  and,  in  fact,  the  whole  plant,  making  it  subject  to  serious  dis- 
ease. So  also  the  moisture  or  temperature  fluctuations  of  the  soil  and 
its  aeration  may  be  unfavorable  to  a  particular  variety,  making  it  less 
resistant  to  disease,  if  not  actually  causing  a  pathological  condition  in 
itself.  Too  little  attention  has  been  given  to  these  factors  by  the 
farmers  and  horticulturists  as  well  as  by  the  pathologists. 

An  important  duty  in  this  new  century  will  be  to  develop  a  better 
appreciation  and  more  accurate  understanding  of  the  relation  of  these 
factors  to  health  and  disease.  The  cropping  system  of  a  farm  or 
orchard,  the  planting  of  a  nursery  or  a  park  to  be  satisfactory  and 
successful  in  securing  healthy  growth  must  be  undertaken  only  after 
a  careful  consideration  of  all  these  factors  involved.  Like  the  archi- 
tect, the  horticulturist  and  the  farmer  must  have  a  carefully  thought- 
out  plan  and  as  nearly  as  possible  see  the  end  from  the  beginning. 

RESISTANCE    AND   IMMUNITY. 

Our  ideal,  of  course,  is  to  cultivate  plants  that  can  in  the  largest 
measure  consistent  with  other  requirements  fight  their  own  battles. 
Observation  and  experience  have  given  us  a  large  amount  of  informa- 
tion on  adaptability  to  conditions  and  resistance  to  disease,  which 
remains  to  be  classified  and  digested  in  order  to  be  made  generally 
available.  We  often  neglect  to  reap  the  benefits  of  a  destructive 
drouth,  a  cold  wave,  an  epidemic  of  disease,  or  the  failure  of  a  crop, 
fry  neglecting  to  study  and  save  what  is  left.  The  few  straggling  plants 
left  do  not  appeal  to  the  average  man.  He  plows  them  up  or  turns 
in  the  hogs.  But  the  man  familiar  with  Nature's  methods  sees  in  these 
survivors  resistant  strains  and  saves  the  few  straggling  plants  for  seed, 
with  the  hope  that  the  few  survivors  may  have  some  peculiarity  trans- 
mittable  to  progeny,  making  them  resistant  to  the  factor  that  caused 
the  general  destruction  of  the  crop.  In  this  way  originated  the  wilt- 
resistant  cotton,  wilt-resistant  cowpeas  and  flax,  and  cowpeas  and  to- 
bacco resistant  to  nematode  or  root-knot.  Strains  of  red  clover  resis- 
tant to  anthracnose  (a  disease  which  in  many  sections  of  the  South 
makes  it  impossible  to  grow  ordinary  non-resistant  clover)  were  also 
originated  in  this  way.  Strains  of  corn,  oats,  wheat,  rye,  clover, 
alfalfa,  sugar  beets,  and  other  grains,  forage  plants,  and  vegetables 
resistant  to  cold,  alkali  and  drouth  have  been  developed  from  such 
selections,  in  some  cases  made  purposely  by  subjecting  the  crop  to 
these  conditions,  in  others  by  simply  taking  advantage  of  what  occurred 
naturally.  In  some  of  the  older  and  more  thickly  populated  parts  of 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL    OF   HORTICULTURE  19 

the  world  necessity  has  forced  the  saving  of  the  last  straw.  This  is 
why  we  find  the  drouth-resistant  durum  wheats  in  the-  dry  regions  of 
Russia  and  Asia  and  around  the  Mediterranean,  the  alkali  and  drouth- 
resistant  alfalfas  and  other  forage  crops  in  the  same  regions,  a  cold- 
resistant  alfalfa  in  Siberia  and  northern  Manchuria,  the  cold-resistant 
winter  wheats  of  Russia,  and  other  crops  too  numerous  to  mention. 
Hundreds  of  years  of  culture  and  selection,  forced  by  poverty  and 
necessity  under  forbidding  conditions  of  cold  and  drouth  and  disease, 
have  made  those  sections  veritable  storehouses  of  good  things,  but 
what  nature  and  necessity  have  not  produced  for  us  we  can  in  large 
measure  do  for  ourselves.  We  can  combine  the  cold-resisting  quality 
of  the  trifoliate  inedible  orange  with  the  fruit  qualities  of  the  tender 
sweet  orange;  the  disease-resistant  quality  of  the  citron  with  the  fruit 
quality  of  the  edible  melons ;  the  rust-resistant  quality  of  the  durum 
wheat  with  the  berry  of  the  Blue  Stem;  the  cold-resistant  quality  of 
the  wild  crab  with  the  fruit  of  our  finer  apples.  The  possibilities  of 
such  composite  breeding  have  scarcely  been  touched  or  appreciated. 
In  such  work  many  factors  must  be  taken  into  account  and  great  care 
and  foresight  exercised. 

PATHOLOGICAL  INVESTIGATION. 

Coming  now  to  the  scientific  study  of  plant  diseases,  there  is  almost 
unlimited  room  for  improvement.  Compared  with  what  there  is  still 
to  discover,  our  knowledge  of  most  diseases  is  still  meager  and  one- 
sided. The  brain  of  the  pathologist  is  his  most  important  instrument 
in  such  investigation.  It  must  be  trained  to  work  with  precision  in  all 
of  the  various  directions  and  fields  involved  in  such  study.  This  is  not 
now  generally  the  case,  and  our  colleges  must  be  awakened  to  their 
duty.  To  most  successfully  combat  a  disease,  we  should  know  the 
causes  that  contribute  to  it  and  as  much  about  the  causes  as  possible. 
We  should  understand  the  pathological  reaction  of  the  diseased  plant. 
Only  in  this  way  shall  we  be  able  to  remoye  the  causes  or  protect  the 
plant  against  them  or  assist  it  to  recover. 

SPRAYING. 

In  the  cases  of  disease  due  to  attack  of  parasitic  organisms,  we 
are  often  able  to  protect  our  crops  by  spraying.  Spraying,  like  a  coat 
of  mail,  is  a  protection  against  entrance  to  the  tissues  by  invading 
organisms.  If  there  are  any  holes  in  the  coat  of  mail  or  if  it  is  made 
of  poor  material  or  is  put  on  after  the  arrow  has  pierced  the  flesh, 
it  may  be  of  no  avail.  Much  of  our  spraying  has  holes  in  it.  The 
tissues  are  not  properly  coated  during  the  periods  of  attack.  Much 
of  the  new  growth  is  left  unprotected  during  the  critical  period.  The 
parasite  gets  in  through  these  places,  and  we  find  too  late  that  hasty, 
careless  spraying  is  of  little  value. 

Improperly  made  mixtures  or  mixtures  made  of  poor  materials 
are  often  no  protection  and  may  be  as  injurious  as  the  disease.  Even 
good  Bordeaux  mixture  can  not  safely  be  used  on  some  plants,  like 


20          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

peaches,  and  in  some  seasons  is  slightly  injurious  to  apples.  The 
apparatus  for  spraying  is  as  a  rule  poorly  constructed,  clumsy,  and  in 
great  need  of  general  improvement  and  adaptation  to  particular  condi- 
tions. Demand  good  machinery  and  pay  for  it.  It  is  essential  to  suc- 
cess. Those  who  know  these  things  must  teach,  by  demonstration, 
those  who  know  imperfectly  or  do  not  know  at  all.  Literature  is 
valuable  as  an  aid  to  demonstration  teaching  but  can  never  take  the 
place  of  it.  Too  much  dependence  on  literature  is  one  of  our  great 
educational  mistakes.  Send  out  fewer  bulletins  and  more  men. 

Briefly,  then,  we  shall  improve  on  the  pathology  of  the  last  century 
if  we  take  time  to  be  careful  and  thorough.  Study  the  causes  of  failure 
and  profit  by  the  results.  Demand  better-trained  minds  and  improved 
apparatus,  and  depend  in  our  teaching  more  upon  men  and  less  upon 
books. 

INSECT  ENEMIES. 

A.   L.    QUAINTANCE,  WASHINGTON,  D.    C. 

The  protection  of  crops  from  insect  injuries  is  one  of  the  impor- 
tant cultural  problems.  There  is  scarcely  a  wild  or  cultivated  plant 
but  which  furnishes  food  for  a  score  or  more  of  insects,  and  the  num- 
ber of  species  which  may  attack  a  given  crop  in  many  instances  runs 
up  into  the  hundreds.  Thus  in  the  United  States  the  apple  furnishes 
food  directly  or  indirectly  to  some  280  different  kinds  of  insects;  the 
grape  upwards  of  200,  and  about  the  same  number  has  been  recorded 
as  attacking  the  peach.  Corn  is  fed  upon  by  at  least  50  fairly  important 
destructive  insects,  and  wheat  and  oats  together  by  perhaps  twice  that 
number.  Clover  furnishes  food  for  somewhat  more  than  80  species, 
while  so  new  a  crop  as  the  sugar  beet  is  attacked  by  at  least  70  different 
insect  pests. 

Not  all  of  these  insects  are  injurious  every  year,  but  any  one  of  the 
species  which  at  present  may  be  comparatively  unimportant  is  liable  at 
any  time,  under  changed  con'ditions  of  environment,  to  become  seriously 
destructive ;  as  witness  the  outbreak  the  past  spring  in  the  grain  fields 
of  the  middle  west  of  the  so-called  "green  bug,"  a  species  of  plant 
louse;  that  of  the  pea  louse  a  few  years  ago  in  Maryland  and  Dela- 
ware; and  the  pear  thrips,  which  at  the  present  time  is  doing  great 
injury  to  the  deciduous  fruit  interests  in  portions  of  California.  These 
two  latter  species  were  quite  unknown  to  science  previous  to  their 
appearance  in  such  destructive  numbers.  There  are,  however,  a  con- 
siderable number  of  species  that  vary  comparatively  little  from  year 
to  year,  chronic  pests,  so  to  speak,  that  may  confidently  be  counted 
on  to  put  in  appearance  at  their  stated  times,  and  these  are  responsible 
for  our  principal  insect  losses. 

LOSSES   FROM   INJURIOUS   INSECTS    IN    THE   UNITED   STATES. 

The  actual  damage  inflicted  by  insects  to  crops  is  very  difficult  to 
estimate,  but  attempts  have  been  made  from  time  to  time  to  express  in 


NATIONAL    COUNCIL    OF   HORTICULTURE  21 

terms  of  dollars  and  cents  the  annual  shrinkage  in  value  throughout 
the  United  States  from  insect  attack.  By  reason  of  the  enormous 
value  of  the  annual  production  of  the  farm  and  forest  a  very  small 
percentage  of  loss  from  insect  injuries  gives,  in  the  aggregate,  figures 
that  at  first  thought  might  seem  extravagant.  Agricultural  statistics 
for  1889  and  subsequent  years  indicate  an  annual  value  of  farm  pro- 
ducts of  about  $5,000,000,000.  To  those  who  have  followed  the  destruc- 
tive work  of  insects  from,  year  to  year  to  produce  of  the  orchard,  farm, 
and  garden,  in  the  field  and  stored,  and  to  live  stock,  a  shrinkage  in 
value  on  account  of  insect  injury,  for  the  country  as  a  whole,  of  10 
per  cent  will,  I  believe,  appear  conservative.  In  fact  this  percentage 
of  loss  will  more  often  be  exceeded  than  otherwise,  as  illustrated  by 
the  ravages  of  orchards  by  the  San  Jose  scale;  the  apple  crop  by  the 
codling  moth ;  peaches,  plums,  and  apples  by  the  curculio ;  grain  crops 
by  the  Hessian  fly,  joint  worms,  the  chinch  bug  and  grasshoppers; 
cotton  by  the  boll  weevil  and  boll  worm,  and  the  losses  to  live  stock 
through  the  agency  of  the  cattle  tick,  the  transmitter  of  the  serious 
malady  of  cattle  known  as  Texas  fever.  A  10  per  cent  shrinkage  in 
value  of  the  total  farm  production  means  a  loss  of  $500,000,000,  and 
to  this  must  be  added  losses  to  forests  and  lumber  and  to  forage  crops, 
stored  grain,  and  miscellaneous  products,  which  on  a  similar  conserva- 
tive basis  amounts  to  $200,000,000.  We  therefore  have  as  the  approx- 
imate annual  loss  by  insects  in  the  United  States  the  enormous  sum  of 
$700,000,000,  an  amount  which  exceeds  the  entire  annual  expenditure 
of  the  National  Government. 


ECONOMIC   STATUS    OF   INSECTS    AS    A    CLASS. 

But  it  should  not  be  understood  that  all  insects  are  destroyers  of 
crops.  Broadly  speaking,  insects  are  good  or  bad  as  they  favor  or 
interfere  with  man's  interests.  There  is  a  popular  misconception  in 
the  minds  of  a  great  many  that  insects  as  a  class  are  decidedly  injuri- 
ous. As  a  matter  of  fact  this  is  far  from  being  the  case.  The  class 
Insecta,  in  point  of  species,  comprises  about  four-fifths  of  all 
animals,  and  the  number  of  species  which  is  thought  to  exist  has  been 
variously  estimated  at  from  one  to  ten  million.  Of  this  enormous 
number  not  more  than  400,000  have  as  yet  been  actually  described  and 
named.  From  North  America  are  recorded  only  some  40,000  species, 
and  of  these  perhaps  not  more  than  1,000  or  1,200  ought  to  be  regarded 
as  injurious.  The  great  proportion  of  our  insect  fauna  feed  upon  plants 
of  no  special  economic  importance,  as  on  wild  plants,  weeds,  etc.  A 
large  number  feed  upon  animal  substances,  including  those  which  are 
parasitic  and  predaceous  upon  other  insects.  In  respect  to  their  rela- 
tions to  man's  interest  as  a  class,  insects  have  been  grouped  as  follows  :* 


*  Economic  Status  of  Insects  as  a  Class,  by  L.  O.  Howard,  Science, 
n.  s.    Vol.  IX,  p.  233. 


22         JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

Insects  are  injurious: 

(1)  As  destroyers  of  crops  and  other  valuable  plant  life. 

(2)  As  destroyers  of  stored  foods,  dwellings,  clothes,  books,  etc. 

(3)  As  injuring  live  stock  and  other  useful  animals. 

(4)  As  annoying  man. 

(5)  As  carriers  of  disease. 
Insects  are  beneficial : 

(1)  As  destroyers  of  injurious  insects. 

(2)  As  destroyers  of  noxious  plants. 

(3)  As  pollinizers  of  plants. 

(4)  As  scavengers. 

(5)  As  makers  of  soil. 

(6)  As  food   (for  man  and  poultry,  song  birds  and  food  fishes) 
and  as  clothing  and  as  used  in  the  arts. 

Thus  insects  are  about  equally  divided  as  to  their  injurious  and 
beneficial  characters.  Their  injuries  to  farm  and  forest  products  and 
their  role  in  the  transmission  of  diseases  in  man  and  live  stock  doubt- 
less include  the  principal  losses  which  they  occasion.  Notwithstanding 
the  enormous  destruction  of  useful  products  caused  each  year  by 
insects  their  injuries  are  largely  offset  by  the  assistance  which  the 
beneficial  forms  render  in  the  destruction  of  noxious  species  and  in 
the  pollination  of  plants.  The  beneficial  influence  of  insects  in  these 
ways  is  but  little  understood  by  the  public  in  general.  It  is  perhaps 
not  too  mu  h  to  say  that  our  very  existence  depends  on  these  friendly 
insects  which  insure  our  crops  by  effecting  the  fertilization  of  plants 
and  keeping  down  injurious  species. 

In  nature,  insect  and  plant  species  have  gradually  evolved  together, 
and  there  has  come  about  a  very  complex  though  well  balanced  rela- 
tionship between  the  plants  and  insects,  and  between  the  insects  them- 
selves. The  destruction  of  the  native  plants  of  the  prairie  and  forest 
and  the  planting  of  cultivated  plants  has  quite  changed  the  natural 
conditions  surrounding  our  native  insects,  and  they  have  been  forced, 
or  from  preference  have  attacked  the  succulent  cultivated  crops  and  by 
reason  of  its  great  abundance  individuals  of  a  species  are  able  to  de- 
velop in  enormous  numbers.  While  we  have  numerous  native  species 
of  first-class  importance,  as  the  peach  borer,  potato  beetle,  etc.,  the 
considerable  majority  of  our  worst  insect  pests  have  come  to  us,  at 
various  times,  from  other  countries.  In  practically  all  instances,  these 
introductions  have  here  become  more  destructive  than  in  their  native 
homes,  for  reasons  not  always  explainable,  but  in  numerous  instances 
from  the  fact  that  their  insect  enemies  which  at  home  serve  to  keep 
them  reduced  have  not  been  brought  over  with  them.  The  idea  was 
early  suggested  that  the  native  country  of  a  given  imported  species  be 
determined,  and  its  natural  enemies  be  introduced  to  prey  upon  it. 
It  is  a  pleasing  proposition  to  thus  array  the  forces  of  nature  against 
each  other,  but  that  it  should  uniformly  be  successful  involves  a  good 
deal  more  than  is  at  first  apparent. 

Important  as  are  these,  and  other  natural  agencies,  as  rains,  wind- 
storms, forest  fires,  heat  and  drouth,  in  the  destruction  of  noxious  in- 


NATIONAL    COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  23 

sects,  it  is  nevertheless  necessary  for  man  to  supplement  their  work 
by  the  use  of  insecticidal  substances.  The  applied  science  of  economic 
entomology  had  its  foundation  in  this  necessity. 

It  would  be  of  interest,  did  time  permit,  to  briefly  outline  the 
development  of  economic  entomology  in  America,  as  constituting  a 
most  interesting  chapter  in  the  history  of  our  phenomenal  agricultural 
growth.  Insect  problems  of  national  importance  have,  one  after  another, 
presented  themselves  for  solution,  and  a  knowledge  of  methods  of 
insect  control  has  become  more  and  more  necessary  in  agricultural 
and  horticultural  operations.  At  the  present  time  in  the  United  States 
and  Canada,  some  150  persons  are  devoting  their  time,  in  whole  or  in 
part,  to  the  scientific  study  of  injurious  insects,  and  this  number  would 
perhaps  be  doubled,  if  account  be  taken  of  those  engaged  in  the 
enforcement  of  crop-pest  laws.  Some  $300,000  are  annually  spent  in 
work  pertaining  to  destructive  insects,  not  including  emergency  appro- 
priations by  the  Federal  Government,  as  for  the  cotton  boll  weevil,  the 
gypsy  moth,  the  eradication  of  the  cattle  tick,  etc. 

Neglecting,  however,  this  phase  of  the  subject,  attention  will  be 
called  to  some  of  the  methods,  and  their  efficiency,  at  present  employed 
in  reducing  insect  injuries. 

Broadly  speaking,  our  present  battery  for  insect  warfare  is  about 
as  follows : 

(1)  Various  poisons,  as  Paris  green,  ar.senate  of  lead,  hellebore, 
etc.,  for  biting  insects,  which  are  sprayed  or  dusted  on  their 
food  plants. 

(2)  Various  caustic,  soapy  and  penetrating  sprays,  as  lime  sulphur 

wash,  whale  oil  soap,  kerosene  and  crude  petroleum  emul- 
sions, etc.  These  are  more  especially  for  sucking  insects, 
and  destroy  them  by  corroding  or  penetrating  their  bodies, 
or  by  stopping  up  their  breathing  pores. 

(3)  Poisonous  gases,   so  used  as  to  poison  the   air  breathed   by 
insects,  as  hydrocyanic  acid  gas,  carbon  bisulphide,  and  sul- 
phur dioxide. 

(4)  The  utilization  of  parasitic  and  predaceous  insects,  and  para- 

sitic fungous  and  bacterial  diseases. 

(5)  Cultural  methods,  as  timely  planting,  cultivation,  fertilization, 
fall  plowing,  rotation,  pruning,  etc. 

(6)  The  employment  of  plants  or  parts  of  plants  more  or  less 

resistant  to  insect  attack,  as  for  grafting  stock. 

(7)  Mechanical  methods,  as  worming  for  borers,  jarring  for  cur- 
culio,  etc. 

(8)  Legislation,  to  prevent  the  introduction  and  dissemination  of 
noxious  species. 

Spraying. — The  first  two  mentioned  classes  of  insecticides,  namely 
food  poisons  and  contact  remedies,  are  used  mostly  as  sprays,  and 
spraying  without  doubt  is  our  most  effective  way  of  controlling  insects. 
It  is  especially  valuable  for  the  orchardist,  and  for  the  grower  of  small 
fruits  and  truck  crops.  Of  field  crops,  potatoes,  tobacco  and  cotton  are 


24          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS  'OF   HORTICULTURE 

profitably  treated,  but  for  most  staple  crops  other  methods  must  be 
employed. 

The  process  involves  numerous  special  features  as  applied  to  differ- 
ent insects  and  crops,  but  the  object  in  all  cases  is  to  thoroughly  dis- 
tribute the  insecticide  over  the  plants.  Spraying  low  growing  plants, 
as,  potatoes  and  truck  crops,  is  largely  mechanical,  and  requires  no 
comment.  In  the  treatment  of  orchards,  spraying  finds  its  greatest 
development,  and  correct  spraying  is  really  an  art.  The  thoroughness 
of  the  work  and  consequent  results,  will  depend  on  the  ideas  and  experi- 
ence of  the  man  using  the  nozzle  rods.  While  there  is  an  increasing 
adoption  of  spraying  among  fruit  growers,  there  has  not  been  corre- 
sponding improvement  in  regard  to  thoroughness  in  the  work.  Dor- 
mant tree  spraying  of  deciduous  fruits  as  opposed  to  applications  during 
the  growing  season,  is  well  illustrated  in  the  use  of  lime  sulphur  wash 
against  the  San  Jose  scale. 

In  this  case  a  very  strong  wash  is  used,  which  would  be  quite 
unsafe  after  the  foliage  has  appeared.  Its  caustic  action  destroys  the 
San  Jose  scale,  and  numerous  other  insects  which  may  coexist  on  the 
trees,  such  as  other  scale  pests,  pear  leaf  blister  mite,  eggs  of  aphids, 
larvae  of  the  peach  moth,  etc.  The  wash  is  also  most  useful  as  a 
fungicide,  and  is  practically  a  specific  for  peach  leaf  curl.  Its  increased 
use  in  the  control  of  the  scale  on  peaches,  has  greatly  lessened  curl  leaf, 
giving  the  industry  a  stability  it  did  not  previously  possess. 

Spraying  during  the  growing  season  is  best  illustrated  in  the  case 
of  the  apple,  and  is  restricted  in  the  East  largely  to  the  use  of  an 
arsenical  as  Paris  green  or  arsenate  of  lead  in  Bordeaux  mixture, 
effecting  a  combination  treatment  for  insects  and  diseases.  A  schedule 
of  applications  has  been  determined  for  various  parts  of  the  country, 
based  on  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  trouble  to  be  controlled,  afford- 
ing almost  complete  protection  from  such  insects  as  the  codling  moth, 
curculio,  green  fruit  worms,  canker  worms,  and  among  diseases,  the 
scab,  bitter  rot,  fruit  blotch,  leaf  spot,  etc.  The  spraying  of  apples  is 
more  highly  specialized  than  is  the  case  of  other  fruits  and  no  crop 
perhaps  shows  a  greater  percentage  of  benefit. 

In  the  above  remarks  liquid  sprays  entirely  have  been  meant. 
Rather  recently  the  so-called  dust  spray  has  come  into  more  or  less 
of  use,  especially  in  portions  of  the  middle  west,  and  considerable 
difference  of  opinion  has  arisen  as  to  the  relative  merits  of  the  two 
methods.  If  effective,  dust  spraying  has  much  to  recommend  it  as  not 
requiring  the  use  of  water  and  the  lightness  of  the  outfit  permits  its 
use  on  steep  and  hilly  ground. 

A  less  fortunate  condition  exists  in  regard  to  summer  spraying  of 
stone  fruits,  especially  the  peach.  Even  neutral  arsenical  sprays,  such 
as  arsenate  of  lead,  are  likely  to  cause  serious  shot  holing  and  drop- 
ping of  the  leaves,  and  scalding  of  the  fruit,  while  more  caustic  arseni- 
cals,  as  Paris  green,  may  actually  kill  the  twigs  and  limbs.  The  control 
of  the  curculio  on  peach,  to  which  it  is  a  very  serious  enemy,  could 
readily  be  accomplished,  were  a  safe  arsenical  available.  At  the  present 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  25 

time  no  suitable  insecticide  is  known  for  use  on  the  peach  during  the 
growing  season. 

Fumigation. — The  destruction  of  insects  by  poisoning  the  air  which 
they  breathe  is  practicable  with  several  classes  of  pests,  and  has  the 
decided  advantage  over  other  methods  of  complete  extermination.  An 
indispensable  condition  is  that  the  object  to  be  treated  must  be  in  an 
air  tight  inclosure.  Principally  three  fumigants  are  used,  namely  hydro- 
cyanic acid  gas,  carbon  bisulphide  and  sulphur  dioxide.  Fumigation  with 
hydrocyanic  acid  gas  has  become  the  standard  treatment  for  nursery 
stock,  greenhouse  plants,  flour  mills,  warehouses,  private  dwellings, 
etc.  Gassing  is  also  largely  practiced  in  California  in  the  control  of 
insects  On  citrus  trees,  and  to  a  limited  extent  in  Florida  for  the  orange 
white  fly.  A  few  years  ago,  the  practicability  of  fumigating  deciduous 
fruit  trees  in  the  East  for  the  San  Jose  scale  was  thoroughly  tested  in 
Maryland,  New  York  and  Illinois,  but  the  practice  was  never  adopted 
to  any  extent. 

Carbon  bisulphide  finds  its  greatest  usefulness  as  an  insecticide 
for  destroying  insects  in  stored  grain  and  cereal  products.  It  is  con- 
venient to  use  and  very  effective.  This  substance  is  also  employed  in 
the  destruction  of  root  inhabiting  insects  as  the  wooly  apple  aphis,  cab- 
bage root  maggots  and  still  to  a  limited  extent  against  the  phylloxera 
in  France,  where  at  one  time  it  was  a  very  important  remedy  for  this 
pest. 

Sulphur  dioxide,  or  sulphur  fumes,  has  long  been  in  use  for  the 
destruction  in  rooms  or  dwellings  of  certain  insect  pests,  but  the  bleach- 
ing effect  of  the  gas  in  the  presence  of  moisture  has  made  it  much  less 
popular  than  the  above  two  fumigants.  Sulphur  fumes  are  further 
very  destructive  to  plants,  as  witness  the  injury  to  vegetation  in  the 
vicinity  of  smelting  works.  Nevertheless,  sulphur  dioxide  will  be  more 
or  less  useful  in  special  cases.  Thus  it  has  been  adopted  by  the  North 
German  Lloyd  Steamship  Company,  for  the  extermination  in  vessels  of 
insects,  in  grain,  of  rats  and  other  vermin. 

PARASITIC  AND  PREDACEOUS  INSECTS,  AND  FUNGOUS  DISEASES. 

Introduced  insect  pests  are  almost  invariably  much  more  destruc- 
tive here  than  in  their  original  home,  supposedly  on  account  of  the 
influence  of  natural  agencies  which  there  operate  to  keep  them  reduced. 
It  is  one  of  the  resources  of  economic  entomology  to  import  from  the 
original  home  of  an  introduced  pest  any  enemies  which  it  may  have,, 
in  the  hope  of  bringing  about  its  control.  This  sort  of  work  had  its 
greatest  inspiration  in  the  notably  successful  importation  from  Australia 
into  California  of  the  Vedalia  to  prey  upon  the  cottony  cushion  scale 
which  threatened  to  destroy  the  citrus  industry  of  that  state.  This 
markedly  successful  instance  of  controlling  a  pest  by  one  of  its  natural 
enemies  led  to  much  effort  of  a  similar  character.  Many  importations 
of  predatory  and  parasitic  species  have  been  made,  some  with  fair 
success,  but  on  the  whole  without  marked  effect  on  the  abundance  of 
the  injurious  species.  The  introduction  from  China,  the  nativity  of  the, 


26          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

San  Jose  scale,  of  a  lady-bird  beetle  which  there  keeps  the  scale  in 
check  is  familiar  to  most  of  you.  While  the  lady-bird  thrived  for  a 
while  in  its  new  home,  it  became  itself  the  object  of  attack  from 
other  predatory  insects,  and  the  absence  of  suitable  scale  food,  due  to 
the  general  spraying  of  orchards,  where  it  had  been  introduced,  led  to 
its  extinction,  except  perhaps  in  one  or  two  localities  in  the  South.  At 
the  present  time  large  importations  into  Massachusetts  from  Europe 
are  being  made  of  enemies  of  the  gypsy  and  brown  tail  moth,  but  the 
outcome  of  the  work  cannot  yet  be  indicated.  In  a  few  instances 
insects  have  been  found  to  be  quite  susceptible  to  bacterial  or  fungous 
diseases,  and  attempts  have  been  made  to  propagate  and  disseminate 
these  to  secure  their  destruction.  Notable  instances  are  the  use  of  the 
so-called  "Muscardine"  fungus  years  ago  in  the  middle  west  against 
the  chinch  bug;  the  more  recent  use  in  Florida  of  the  fungus  Sphaero- 
stilbe  against  the  San  Jose  scale,  and  the  work  at  the  present  time  in 
the  same  state  with  the  Aschersoriia  diseases  of  the  orange  white  fly. 

Cultural  Methods. — Numerous  methods  may  be  practiced  for  avoid- 
ing insect  injuries  by  the  farmer  and  fruit  grower,  which  involve  no 
outlay  in  time  and  labor  not  essential  to  proper  crop  culture,  such  as 
clean  culture  and  fall  plowing  where  practicable,  the  early  destruction 
of  crop  remnants,  the  use  of  fertilizers  to  keep  plants  in  vigorous  and 
healthy  condition,  crop  rotation,  and  in  orchards  prompt  removal  of 
diseased  and  dying  limbs  and  trees,  etc.  Indeed  in  the  case  of  staple 
crops,  such  operations  are  about  all  that  may  be  done. 

Winter  wheat  is  largely  protected  from  the  fall  swarm  of  the  Hes- 
sian fly  by  delaying  seeding  in  the  fall  until  the  insects  have  made  their 
appearance,  and  died  without  ovipositing.  Injury  from  the  cotton  boll 
weevil  is  best  avoided  by  planting  the  crop  as  early  in  the  spring  as 
possible,  and  forcing  a  quick  production,  by  chopping  the  plants  out 
wide  in  the  rows,  the  liberal  use  of  fertilizers,  and  frequent  cultiva- 
tion. In  this  way,  a  profitable  crop  of  cotton  may  be  insured  before 
the  weevils  are  sufficiently  abundant  as  to  destroy  the  squares  as  fast 
as  they  are  produced.  The  early  picking  of  the  crop  and  destruction  of 
the  plants  in  the  fall  and  before  the  beetles  go  into  hibernation  destroys 
them  in  enormous  numbers,  as  they  feed  only  on  cotton.  The  cultiva- 
tion of  vineyards  in  the  spring  as  the  shoots  are  pushing  out,  largely 
destroys  the  soft  helpless  pupae  of  the  grape  root  worm  then  near  the 
surface  of  the  ground.  Similarly  the  plum  curculio  may  be  reduced  to 
an  important  extent  by  cultivation  of  orchards  during  a  period  of  a 
month,  beginning  about  six  weeks  after  blooming.  Liberal  use  of  fer- 
tilizers will  often  enable  plants  to  outgrow  insect  attack.  This  is  well 
illustrated  in  the  case  of  the  black  peach  aphis;  in  Michigan,  where 
the  pest  is  quite  troublesome,  trees  suffering  from  aphis  attack  are 
readily  brought  out  by  liberal  use  of  stable  manure.  Many  similar 
instances  might  be  cited.  In  the  use  of  cultural  methods  it  should  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  work  must  be  done  advisedly  as  in  the  case  of 
spraying  and  with  special  reference  to  the  particular  insects  to  be  con- 
trolled. 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL    OF   HORTICULTURE  27 

Resistant  Varieties. — Entomologists'  have  given  but  little  attention 
to  the  selecting  or  breeding  of  varieties  of  plants,  resistant  or  unpal- 
atable to  insects.  A  few  examples  may  be  cited  as  indicating  possibili- 
ties along  such  lines  of  work.  The  solution  of  the  grape  phylloxera 
problem  of  France  and  California  has  come  about  by  the  use  for  graft- 
ing stock  for  the  European  grape  of  the  roots  of  American  vines. 
Numerous  observers  have  commented  on  the  relative  freedom  from  the 
woolly  apple  aphis  of  apple  trees  grafted  on  roots  of  the  Northern  Spy, 
and  certain  other  varieties.  Doctor  Webber  found  that  one  of  his  citrus 
creations,  the  Drake  star  orange,  was  resistant  to  the  Phyptoptus  rust 
of  the  orange.  Orton  has  found  that  a  variety  of  cow  pea,  the  "Iron," 
is  immune  to  attack  from  the  so-called  root  knot,  a  nematode  affection 
of  the  peach  and  many  other  plants,  especially  troublesome  in  the  light 
sandy  soils  of  the  South.  The  comparative  immunity  from  attack  by 
the  San  Jose  scale  of  Kieffer  and  Le  Conte  pears,  the  quince  and  sour 
cherry,  is  unique  in  view  of  the  almost  omniverous  habits  of  this  insect, 
and  the  determination  of  the  reason  might  be  of  practical  value.  Cer- 
tain strains  of  plums,  especially  the  Americana  group,  are  but  little 
injured  by  the  plum  curculio,  and  varieties  of  apples  vary  considerably 
in  regard  to  susceptibility  to  codling  moth  injury.  This  practically 
untrodden  field  should  receive  more  attention  from  entomologists. 

Mechanical  Methods. — Only  brief  reference  is  required  to  what  may 
be  termed  mechanical  methods  in  fighting  insects.  Under  this  caption 
may  be  included  such  practices  as  worming  for  borers,  jarring  for 
the  plum  curculio,  destroying  insects  by  hand  picking,  etc.  In  general 
such  methods  are  resorted  to  because  no  better  plan  is  available.  Some 
first-class  pests  at  present  must  be  treated  in  these  ways,  though  future 
discoveries  may  afford  more  practicable  treatment. 

Legislation. — The  advent  into  the  East  of  the  San  Jose  scale  was 
the  primary  cause  of  the  adoption  by  many  states  of  laws  designed  to 
prevent  its  distribution  on  nursery  stock  and  secure  its  eradication  or 
control  where  established  in  orchards.  Numerous  other  insect  and 
fungous  pests  were  brought  under  the  operation  of  the  laws,  and  on  the 
whole  the  legislation  has  been  productive  of  great  good.  That  it  should 
uniformly  secure  the  results  desired  was  perhaps  more  than  should 
be  expected.  A  recent  census  of  insect  legislation  in  the  United  States 
shows  that  only  eleven  out  of  the  forty-eight  states  and  territories 
are  yet  without  crop  pest  laws,  and  some  of  these  will  present  bills  for 
enactment  shortly.  Thirty  different  insect  species  are  specified  as  nox- 
ious pests,  and  provision  in  many  laws  is  made  for  the  designation  of 
other  insects  when  deemed  expedient.  The  San  Jose  scale  is  the  only 
species  mentioned  common  to  all  laws,  which  well  illustrates  the  diver- 
sity of  requirements  of  the  various  states.  For  some  years,  represen- 
tatives of  the  National  Nurserymen's  Association  and  of  the  Official 
Horticultural  Inspectors  have  endeavored  to  devise  a  more  uniform 
system  of  certification  of  nursery  stock  for  interstate  shipments  which 
is  greatly  to  be  desired.  So  far  however,  no  arrangement  has  thus  far 
apparently  been  effected.  The  establishment  of  a  quarantine  and  inspec- 


28          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

tion  system  by  the  National  Government  of  all  plants  brought  in  from 
abroad  has  been  more  or  less  agitated  recently,  and  the  wisdom  of  such 
action  cannot  be  questioned.  The  State  of  California  has  maintained 
such  quarantine  for  many  years,  and  has  no  doubt  kept  out  many  unde- 
sirable insect  immigrants. 

In  conclusion,  the  speaker  would  say,  that  while  our  battery  for 
insect  warfare  may  appear  somewhat  formidable,  he  believes  that  it 
will  steadily  improve  in  the  future.  Our  present  losses  from  insect 
attack  must  be  greatly  reduced  and  this  will  result  from  a  more  detailed 
knowledge  of  the  insects  themselves  throughout  their  range  of  distri- 
bution, and  a  general  adoption  by  those  interested,  of  the  recommenda- 
tions which  have  proven  to  be  of  value. 

VEGETABLE  BREEDING. 

W.    VAN   FLEET,   LITTLE    SILVER,    N.    J. 

The  breeding  of  vegetables  doubtless  began  when  primitive  man 
ceased  wholly  to  rely  on  the  wild  products  of  nature.  The  dawning 
intelligence  that  made  the  beginnings  of  plant  culture  would  soon  lead 
to  discrimination  in  varieties  and  the  perpetuation  by  various  propaga- 
tive  means  of  the  better  rather  than  the  inferior  types  of  herbs,  roots 
and  seeds  found  desirable  for  his  use.  Thus  in  all  probability  was 
born  selection — the  most  powerful  of  all  forces  in  the  modification  of 
vegetable  life  by  man.  So  potent  and  far  reaching  is  selection  con- 
sistently carried  through  successive  generations,  and  so  widely  do 
modern  cultivated  forms  differ  from  the  original  stocks,  that  the  major- 
ity of  vegetables  of  the  present  day  cannot  with  reasonable  certainty 
be  traced  back  to  their  primitive  species.  The  experiments  of  Vilmorin 
showed  that  an  edible  root  similar  to  the  Student  parsnip  of  modern 
gardens  could  be  evolved  in  less  than  five  generations  of  critical  selec- 
tion from  the  common,  semi-poisonous  wild  European  parsnip,  so  we 
may  imagine  the  profound  influence  of  continuous  selection,  running 
back  to  far  prehistoric  ages,  on  the  plants  used  as  culinary  vegetables. 
What  family  of  plants  first  claimed  the  attention  of  primitive  man  we 
cannot  with  certainty  know,  but  from  the  shadowy  evidence  of  ancient 
remains  it  would  appear  that  beans,  peas  and  related  legumes  were 
among  the  earliest  cultivated  vegetables.  Potent  from  the  very  outset, 
notwithstanding  the  desultory  manner  it  may  have  been  practiced, 
varietal  selection  yet  remains  the  most  certain  and  powerful  method 
of  moulding  vegetable  life  to  meet  the  needs  or  fancies  of  man.  It  is 
the  truest  form  of  breeding,  the  genuine  pedigree  work,  by  which  we 
have  slowly  climbed  toward  the  goal  of  vegetable  perfection.  Violent 
climatic  changes,  distant  removals,  intense  fertilization  and  the  little 
known  forces  of  mutation  or  bud  variation  have  all  had  their  influ- 
ences, but  they  are  small  indeed  compared  to  that  of  continued  selec- 
tion. Modification  by  intentional  hybridization  or  cross-pollination, 
though  a  powerful  means  of  adding  new  characteristics,  is  of  such  re- 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  29 

cent  practice,  beginning  in  fact  almost  with  the  closing  years  of  the 
last  century,  that  it  has  made  but  limited  impression  on  vegetable  types. 
The  present  standard  varieties  are  with  few  exceptions  the  outcome  of 
selection  alone.  Hybridization,  coupled  with  the  all-necessary  selec- 
tion, is  likely  to  have  an  increasing  share  in  future  vegetable  breeding. 
Following  is  a  brief  resume  of  the  principal  modern  vegetables  with 
reference  to  the  general  manner  of  their  production. 

Asparagus. — The  cultivated  varieties  of  asparagus  all  appear  to 
have  been  developed  by  age-long  selection  from  the  common  European 
species,  A.  officinalis.  A  few  modern  kinds  are  claimed  to  be  cross- 
bred, but  whether  intentionally  so,  we  are  not  informed.  Asparagus, 
being  largely  dioecious  in  blooming  habit,  is  readily  cross-fertilized 
when  two  or  more  varieties  are  grown  in  near  vicinity.  A  Massachus- 
etts society  has  undertaken  breeding  experiments  with  asparagus  both 
on  the  lines  of  pure  selection  and  well  considered  crossing,  with  the 
hope  of  producing  varieties  more  resistant  to  rust  than  those  now 
cultivated. 

Beets. — Modern  garden  beets  are  admirable  examples  of  critical 
selection  for  untold  generations  of  culture.  Certain  varieties  leave 
little  to  be  desired  in  elegance  of  form,  coloring  or  quality.  The  present 
effort  appears  to  be  toward  uniformity  of  type  rather  than  refinements 
of  the  above  mentioned  features.  The  use  of  beets  for  sugar  produc- 
tion has,  however,  led  to  wonderful  development  of  forms  suitable  for 
that  important  commercial  purpose.  The  sugar  content  of  the  beet  has 
been  more  than  doubled  in  less  than  forty  years  of  concentrated  breed- 
ing work  largely  under  government  supervision.  Selection  of  the  best 
sugar-producing  individuals  for  successive  generations  has  been  the 
all-powerful  means,  but  cross-pollination  is  now  beginning  to  play  its 
part.  One  of  the  important  objects  sought  by  the  breeders  of  our 
Department  of  Agriculture  is  the  production  of  a  reliable  strain  of 
one-germ  beet  seeds  in  order  to  lessen  the  expense  of  thinning  the 
young  plants.  Everyone  knows  that  ordinary  beet  "seeds"  are  merely 
coherent  multiple  fruits,  usually  containing  several  true  seeds,  which 
may  germinate  close  together.  The  Department  breeders  employ  both 
selection  and  crossing  in  the  furtherance  of  their  work. 

Cabbage  and  related  Brassicas  are  without  doubt  bred  almost 
wholly  by  selection.  Profound  indeed  have  been  the  changes  wrought 
in  developing  our  hard-heading  cabbages,  our  cauliflowers,  Brussels 
sprouts,  kales  and  even  Kohl-rabis  from  the  loose-tufted  wild  cabbage 
of  Britain.  Varieties  cross  with  some  freedom  when  planted  near-by 
and  useful  variations  may  have  arisen  in  that  manner,  but  the  tendency 
is  carefully  to  segregate  seed  plantings  so  as  to  reduce  natural  crossing 
to  the  minimum.  The  writer  has  made  crosses  between  green-leaved 
and  highfy  glaucous  cabbage  varieties  with  the  production  of  offspring 
having  leaves  of  intermediate  coloring,  but  retaining  the  heading  char- 
acteristics of  both  parents  in  different  individuals.  Prolonged  attempts 
to  hybridize  Chinese  cabbage  species,  Brassica  Petsai  and  B.  Chinensis, 
with  garden  cabbages  entirely  failed.  Apparently  distinct  species  of 
cruciferous  genera  are  not  easy  to  cross.  We  have  European  reports 


30         JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

of  successful  crosses  between  the  hairy  leaved  turnips  and  the  ruta- 
baga, but  none  appears  to  have  risen  to  commercial  importance. 

Celery. — Appears  wholly  a  product  of  evolution  by  selection.  The 
present  tendencies  on  one  hand  are  to  breed  for  early  maturity  and 
quick  bleaching  and  on  the  other  to  seek  in  the  deep-green  leaved 
varieties  good  keeping  quality  and  resistance  to  bacterial  disease. 

Cucumbers  and  Melons. — Intentional  as  well  as  natural  crossing 
plays  an  important  part  in  the  development  of  these  popular  vine  fruits. 
Most  strains  of  forcing  or  glasshouse  cucumbers  are  the  results  of 
crossing  our  white  spine  variety  with  the  long  smooth  cucumbers  so 
extensively  grown  abroad.  In  these  dilute  variety-hybrids  the  white 
spine  type  of  fruit  prevails,  but  the  vigor  of  plant  of  the  European 
kinds  is  retained.  Glasshouse  melons  appear  to  an  even  greater  extent 
to  be  the  direct  results  of  crossing.  In  most  instances  records  of  par- 
entage are  preserved,  as  being  of  commercial  importance.  Among 
outdoor  varieties  hand-made  crosses  are  less  in  evidence,  the  seed 
grower  practicing  careful  selection  and  isolation  of  varieties  to  main- 
tain purity  of  type,  but  crossing  is  so  readily  affected  by  natural  agencies 
that  most  distinct  varieties  probably  originated  in  that  manner,  to  be 
later  perpetuated  by  selection. 

Table  Corns. — Are  cross-bred  with  comparative  ease  and  certainty. 
Three  years  of  selection  will  usually  fix  a  desirable  cross  sufficiently  for 
dissemination.  Many  successful  crosses  have  been  made  for  purely 
local  uses.  By  far  the  greatest  interest  in  corn  breeding  lies  in  the 
vast  efforts  being  made  by  experiment  stations,  societies  and  indi- 
viduals to  increase  productiveness  and  develop  special  characteristics  in 
field  corn  varieties. 

Lettuce. — Has  hitherto  been  developed  by  selection  and  wonderful 
variations  have  been  produced.  The  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture, 
however,  announces  that  a  successful  cross  has  been  made  between  the 
loose-leaved  Grand  Rapids  type  and  a  large  heading  variety,  like  Big 
Boston,  probably  the  first  intentional  cross-breeding  achieved  in  this 
important  salad  vegetable. 

The  Onion. — Is  one  of  the  most  ancient  and  widely  dispersed  of 
aromatic  vegetables.  Various  species  of  Allium  are  cultivated  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  world  and  it  would  appear  that  fair  opportunities  for 
methodical  hybridization  exist.  Attempts  to  intercross  varieties  of  A. 
cepa,  the  garden  onion,  with  A.  Porrum,  the  leek,  and  A.  fistulosum, 
the  Welsh  onion,  in  the  hands  of  the  writer  completely  failed.  The 
crossing  of  Prizetaker,  a  large  Mediterranean  variety  of  garden  onion, 
with  Red  Wethersfield  resulted  in  attractive  intermediate  offspring 
that  reproduced  quite  true  from  seed. 

Peas  and  Beans. — Are  constantly  subject  to  the  most  careful  se- 
lection, yet  a  considerable  number  of  the  most  prized  varieties,  espe- 
cially among  peas,  are  products  of  intentional  crossing.  Beans  are 
rather  difficult  subjects  to  artificially  pollinate,  yet  successful  hybrids 
between  the  Lima  and  garden  pole  bean,  belonging  to  fairly  diverse 
species,  have  been  made  by  more  than  one  breeder.  Investigations 
show  that  these  garden  legumes,  while  popularly  supposed  to  be  self- 


NATIONAL    COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  31 

pollinating,  as  the  anthers  mature  in  the  bud,  are  quite  subject  to  nat- 
ural crossing  by  the  agency  of  minute  pollen-bearing  insects  that  enter 
immature  blooms. 

The  Pepper. — Is  a  very  neat  subject  for  crossing  and  useful  varie- 
ties may  be  produced  with  tolerable  precision.  It  appears  development 
by  pure  hereditary  selection  has  played  a  smaller  part  with  the  pepper 
than  with  most  vegetables. 

The  Potato. — As  the  most  important  vegetable  propagated  by  di- 
vision, has  a  different  status  from  its  congeners.  New  varieties  are 
produced  by  selection  among  seedlings  grown  mostly  from  chance  or 
self  pollinated  seeds.  It  appears  certain  that  intentional  crossing  or 
hybridization  has  played  a  minor  role  in  the  development  of  potato 
varieties.  The  breeding  of  the  potato  is  more  ardently  pursued  at  the 
present  time  than  that  of  any  other  vegetable  yet  few  experimenters 
are  willing  to  claim  they  have  actually  produced  crosses  or  hybrids. 
Every  available  species  of  tuber-bearing  Solanum  is  apparently  being 
used  by  breeders  in  different  countries  in  the  hope  of  imparting  vigor 
to  the  cross-bred  progeny.  The  paucity  of  results,  up  to  date,  is  quite 
remarkable,  and  appears  to  indicate  that  for  practical  results  we  must 
return  to  the  old  plan  of  growing  seedlings  in  quantity  from  the  best 
available  varieties.  This,  in  view  of  the  progressive  sterility  of  our 
best  commercial  varieties,  is  becoming  an  increasingly  difficult  matter. 

Tomatoes. — The  tomato  is  such  a  modern  addition  to  our  list  of 
really  important  vegetables,  that  its  development  from  an  ornamental 
curiosity  to  the  most  widely  grown  and  valued  of  garden  fruits  lies 
almost  within  the  memory  of  living  men.  Selection,  as  usual,  was  the 
potent  and  comparatively  rapid  means  of  changing  the  original  small, 
flabby  and  seedy  fruits  to  the  large,  solid  and  shapely  tomatoes  of  to- 
day, but  critical  crossing  has  within  the  past  15  years  become  an  im- 
portant factor  in  the  production  of  superior  varieties.  Many  breeders 
find  the  tomato  a  fascinating  and  practical  subject  for  their  efforts.  It 
requires  four  or  five  years  of  rigid  selection  to  sufficiently  fix  a  cross- 
bred variety,  if  of  markedly  diverse  parentage.  There  appears  to  be 
a  particular  tendency  toward  reversion  to  primitive  forms  in  the  third 
generation  of  cross-bred  tomatoes.  The  classic  development  of  the 
Trophy  tomato  by  20  years  of  selection  from  the  original  cross  of 
primitive  tomato  or  "love  apple"  with  the  angular  garden  tomato  of 
1850,  made  by  Dr.  Hand  of  Baltimore,  Md.,  has  never  been  equalled 
and  is  not  likely  to  be  excelled  by  hurried  modern  introducers. 

The  practical  vegetable  breeding  of  the  immediate  future  would 
seem  to  lie  rather  in  efforts  to  produce  varieties  resistant  to  current 
diseases  than  in  continual  refinements  of  the  edible  portions.  In- 
creased vigor  and  resistance  to  germ  infection  appear  to  be  of  the 
highest  importance  in  many  varieties.  Substantial  progress  has  been 
made  by  varietal  selection  in  opposing  asparagus  rust,  potato  blight 
and  corn  smut.  A  reasonably  blight-resistant  melon  is  at  the  present 
time  most  ardently  desired.  Many  factors  go  to  make  up  the  complex 
modern  demands  on  vegetable  growth.  All  are  important,  but  vigor 
and  disease  resistance  are  so  in  the  highest  degree. 


32          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

THE  BREEDING  AND  PROPAGATION  OF  FLORISTS' 
FLOWERS. 

W.  N.  RUDD,  MORGAN  PARK,  ILL. 

The  coupling  of  these  two  subjects  together  seems  eminently 
proper,  as  the  present  situation — especially  with  regard  to  the  carna- 
tion— is  that  the  breeders  are  yearly  producing  new  and  better  varie- 
ties, and  the  grower  is  just  as  rapidly  destroying  them  by  improper 
methods  of  propagating  and  growing. 

Perhaps  a  short  summary  of  the  extent,  or  better,  the  limitation, 
of  the  writer's  experience  may  be  of  use  in  estimating  the  value  of  any 
ideas  advanced  in  this  paper.  For  some  eighteen  years  I  have  been 
actively  engaged  in  growing  cut  flowers  for  market  purposes,  largely 
carnations  and  chrysanthemums,  and  for  the  last  thirteen  years  have 
been  interested  in  the  breeding  of  carnations — with  no  very  striking 
success  so  far  as  the  putting  out  of  phenomenal  new  things  is  con- 
cerned. The  work  has  been  conducted  strictly  from  the  commercial 
standpoint  and,  like  all  work  of  this  kind  conducted  from  this  stand- 
point, has  but  little  value  in  a  scientific  way.  Questions  of  economy, 
the  saving  of  time,  labor  and  greenhouse  space  compel  the  dropping 
of  any  line  so  soon  as  it  shall  appear  not  to  offer  reasonable  chances 
for  gain.  We  cannot  study  retrograde  or  degenerate  movements. 
Failures — that  is,  .  undesirable  types — are  at  once  destroyed  and  re- 
placed by  what  seems  to  give  more  chance  of  gain,  and  no  proper  study- 
is,  or  can  be  made  of  the  causes  of  the  retrogression  or  degeneracy. 
This  same  commercial  pressure  and  desire  to  economize  time,  leads 
us  to  keep  incomplete  records  and  lays  us  open  to  more  than  a  sus- 
picion of  inaccuracy.  General  statements,  summaries  or  conclusions, 
no  matter  how  positively  put  forth  by  us,  are  open  to  suspicion  also, 
because  we  have  no  true  conception  of  what  scientific  accuracy  means. 
Many  of  us  entirely  fail  to  study  the  scientific  work  which  has  been 
done,  or  is  being  done  in  breeding  and  heredity,  while  the  best  of  us 
can  hardly  lay  claim  to  more  than  a  superficial  knowledge  of  it,  gained 
through  digests,  reviews  and  summaries. 

On  the  other  hand  the  scientific  student  of  these  matters  is  not 
primarily  concerned  about  the  commercial  value  of  his  products,  and 
will  preserve  for  careful  study  degenerate  or  sickly  individuals  which 
the  commercial  breeder  will  promptly  discard.  Failures  are  failures, 
simply,  to  the  one,  while  to  the  other  they  are  often  subjects  for  care- 
ful study  as  possibly  containing  the  key  to  the  cause.  The  one  is  con- 
cerned solely  with  the  value  of  the  resulting  individual,  and  has  neither 
the  time,  knowledge  nor  inclination  to  search  deeply  into  the  cause.  To 
the  other,  the  cause  is  the  main  matter  of  interest,  and  the  possible 
commercial  value  of  the  result  is  a  subordinate  one.  The  commercial 
breeder  has  a  thorough  knowledge  of  commercial  values,  and  a  highly 
cultivated,  almost  instinctive  selective  sense  for  progressive  or  valu- 
able traits.  The  scientific  student  is  quite  generally  deficient  in  knowl- 
edge of  commercial  values. 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  33 

These  conditions  of  wide  variance  between  the  two  classes  of  men 
as  to  knowledge,  methods  and  aims  will  explain  the  state  of  mild  con- 
tempt frequently  shown  by  each  for  the  other.  The  commercial  breeder 
takes  a  tumble  when  he  attempts  to  draw  scientific  conclusions  from 
his  work,  and  the  scientist  is  often  left  at  the  post  when  he  ventures 
to  discuss  or  assign  commercial  values. 

It  is  far  from  my  intent  to  belittle  the  work  of  the  scientist.  He 
has  worked  miracles  and  is  doing  so  daily.  What  future  work  in  the 
close  study  of  the  breeding  of  plants  will  do,  no  man  can  say.  It  is 
safe  to  believe,  however,  that  many  problems,  the  answers  to  which  we 
cannot  even  guess  at  present,  will  be  solved.  At  the  risk  of  being 
called  a  Philistine,  however,  I  am  compelled  to  say  that,  so  far  as 
regards  the  commercial  breeder  of  florists'  plants,  the  scientist,  so 
far  as  science  has  been  assimilated,  has  done  little  more  for  him  than 
to  enable  him  in  certain  cases  to  make  a  little  shrewder  guess.  The 
term  scientific  breeding,  as  applied  to  our  subject,  is  a  misnomer.  The 
breeding  of  florists'  flowers  remains  today  almost  a  pure  art. 

There  are  two  principal  recognized  methods  of  breeding  florists' 
flowers,  by  selection  to  fix  a  type  and  by  cross  breeding.  The  two 
methods  are  not  so  different  as  they  might  seem.  Success  in  each  de- 
pends— barring  occasional  accident — on  the  same  qualities  in  the  oper- 
ator. The  cross  may  almost  be  considered  a  minor  matter.  It  is  the 
fine,  almost  instinctive,  power  for  the  perception  of  minute  variations, 
both  progressive  and  retrogressive,  on  which  most  largely  depends  suc- 
cess, and  the  lack  of  it  in  either  case  means  failure. 

This  same  power  of  minute  observation  enables  the  cross  breeder 
to  become  acquainted,  as  it  were,  with  his  subjects,  to  learn  their  indi- 
vidual potencies  and  combining  powers  and  year  by  year,  if  he  is 
careful  about  introducing  foreign  blood,  to  predict  more  and  more 
closely  the  results  of  his  crosses;  and  yet  he  will  often  be  unable  to 
give  to  you  or  me  any  good  and  sufficient  reason  why  he  selects  or 
rejects,  or  why  makes  or  avoids  certain  crosses,  any  more  than  the 
painter  can  give  you  rule  or  reason  for  all  the  varying  form  or  color 
in  his  masterpiece. 

Breeding  and  propagating  in  floriculture  have  widely  varying  ob- 
jects. One  is  a  process  for  producing  (I  had  almost  said  creating) 
new  forms;  the  other  is  a  process  for  increasing  the  number  of  indi- 
viduals of  one  form.  An  attempt  to  discuss  methods  of  propagation 
is  unnecessary. 

Florists'  plants  that  are  propagated  by  seed  do  not  generally  de- 
teriorate for  long  periods,  as  the  seed  is  commonly  grown  by  expert 
specialists,  carefully  rogued  and  kept  up  to  standard.  In  the  plants 
commonly  propagated  from  cuttings,  rapid  deterioration  is  often  no- 
ticed. This  is  due  to  one  or  several  of  many  causes.  A  poor  cutting 
may  be  taken  from  a  good  plant,  or  an  apparently  good  cutting  from 
a  starved,  sickly  or  overfed  plant.  The  cutting  may  be  weakened  by 
too  high  a  temperature  in  the  propagating  bed,  or  by  having  to  sustain 
itself  too  long  without  roots  by  reason  of  too  low  a  temperature  in  the 
sand,  or  by  remaining  too  long  after  rooting  without  potting.  At- 


34          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

tacks  of  disease  or  improper  growing,  of  course,  hasten  the  deteriora- 
tion of  a  variety  but  do  not  concern  us  at  this  time. 

Granting  that  the  mechanical  part  of  the  work  is  properly  done, 
the  sand  good  and  clean,  watering  and  ventilation  properly  attended 
to  and  soil  and  after  culture  all  that  can  be  asked,  there  is  still  deterio- 
ration in  many  cases.  A  sickly  or  diseased  plant  gives  its  own  warn- 
ing, and  only  the  most  careless  grower  will  take  cuttings  from  it.  By 
far  the  most  insidious  danger  lies  in  the  strong  vigorous  plant  produc- 
ing fine  blooms,  but  overfed.  Here  is  the  great  danger  and  here,  I 
believe,  lies  the  prime  cause  of  deterioration,  especially  in  the  carnation. 
A  plant  once  overfed  seems  a  changed  individual  and  this  changed 
condition  extends  to  its  progeny  by  cuttings,  to  a  great  degree. 

When  we  have  taken  cuttings  from  healthy  plants  in  vigorous 
growing  condition,  and  which  we  know  not  to  have  been  over  stimu- 
lated ;  when  we  have  given  them  perfect  conditions  and  perfect  care, 
from  cutting  to  flowering  time  and  back  again,  year  after  year,  there 
will  often  be  noted  a  steady  decline  in  productiveness  with  a  possible 
retention  of  good  health  and  vigor.  We  have  failed  to  learn  our  les- 
son of  the  breeder,  we  have  selected  with  only  one  object  in  view  and 
have  overlooked  the  difference  in  productiveness  of  our  individual 
plants.  When  we  learn  to  scrutinize  every  cutting  as  to  its  quality, 
and  every  plant  from  which  a  cutting  is  made,  not  only  as  to  its 
health  and  vigor,  but  also  as  to  its  flower  producing  qualities,  and  to 
reject  all  but  the  very  best,  then  will  we  hear  less  of  the  deterioration 
of  varieties. 

In  a  word,  success  in  breeding,  success  in  propagating,  in  fact,  suc- 
cess in  all  floricultural  operations  is  due  to  that  quality  by  which  some 
writer  has  defined  genius — an  infinite  capacity  for  taking  pains. 

CARNATION    NOTES. 

The  following  notes,  though  hardly  proper  to  be  included  in  the 
reading  of  this  paper,  may  be  of  some  interest  if  subsequently  printed. 

It  has  been  our  custom  to  so  time  our  crossing  as  to  ripen  seed 
for  March  sowing.  These  seedlings  have  been  planted  in  frames  and 
allowed  to  bloom  in  the  open,  those  showing  desirable  qualities  being 
removed  to  the  greenhouse  for  subsequent  trial,  the  undesirable  ones 
being  destroyed,  and  those  not  blooming  before  frost  being  disregarded, 
experience  having  shown  them  to  be  generally  worthless. 

The  first  bloom  has  been  from  July  15th  to  August  8th,  varying 
in  different  years.  The  plants  blooming  earliest  have  been  generally 
singles  and  those  double  enough  for  commercial  purposes  but  of  med- 
ium or  small  size,  with  very  few  of  the  over  double  or  bursting  form. 
The  early  bloomers  have  quite  generally  been  found  the  freest  in  bloom 
through  later  trials.  The  bursters  have  increased  in  number  later, 
while  the  singles,  though  still  showing,  have  not  been  so  numerous.  The 
larger  number  of  desirable  varieties  have  flowered  from  two  to  four 
weeks  after  the  first  bloom,  and  seldom  have  any  been  saved  after 
September  15th.  A  record  of  each  cross  has  of  course  always  been 


NATIONAL    COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  35 

kept,  and  for  several  seasons  a  brief  record  of  each  seedling  blooming, 
as  regards  doubleness  and  color.  These  records  cover  2,170  separate 
plants  and  during  a  season  of  confinement  to  the  house  were  tabulated 
and  summarized  in  various  ways.  It  should  be  noted  that  the  records 
did  not  cover  the  entire  number  of  plants  from  any  cross  except  in  a 
few  cases,  as  sickly  or  plainly  undesirable  forms  were  at  once  pulled 
up,  and  many  had  not  bloomed  when  freezing  weather  came  on.  With 
these  exceptions  the  notes  are  believed  to  cover  the  ground  reasonably 
well,  and  to  be  fairly  accurate.  No  distinction  was  made  between  those 
bursting  from  over  doubleness  and  those  from  malformation. 

SINGLENESS   OR  DOUBLENESS. 

733  individuals  (one  season's  crosses)  gave  singles 161 

Commercial  doubles  361 

Over  double  or  bursters 211 

1437  individuals  gave  singles 385 

Commercial  706 

Bursters  557 

2170  individuals  gave  singles 546 

Commercial  1067 

Bursters  557 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  sum  of  the  singles  and  bursters  approxi- 
mates quite  closely  the  total  of  the  commercials. 

The  earlier  crosses  seemed  to  produce  more  singles  and  less  burst- 
ers. The  crosses  made  December  10  to  January  1  where  plants  were 
at  their  best,  before  feeding  commenced,  produced  very  nearly  an 
equal  number  of  singles  and  bursters,  with  the  commercials  showing 
a  slight  increase  over  the  sum  of  the  other  two.  The  late  crosses 
showed  the  bursters  in  excess  of  the  singles  and  the  early  and  late 
crosses  showed  the  sum  of  the  singles  and  bursters  in  excess  of  the 
commercials. 

The  above  should  not  be  considered  as  at  all  conclusive,  as  the 
mid-season  crosses  were  very  much  in  excess  in  number  of  the  early 
and  late  ones. 

Crosses  of  one  female  by  various  males  and  the  reverse,  when 
there  were  100  or  more  individuals,  did  not  vary  largely  from  the  pro- 
portions of  the  2,170  individuals  noted  before. 

COLOR. 

A  large  number  of  tabulations  were  made  and  much  care  was 
exercised  in  making  them,  but  they  all  lead  back  to  one  conclusion, 
that  is:  the  color  of  the  seedling  is  a  matter  depending  entirely  upon 
the  individual  potency  of  the  parents.  The  most  potent  parents  as  to 
color  were  those  which  were  the  result  of  many  generations  of  previous 
breeding  to  color.  Some  reproduced  their  color  better  as  males,  others 
as  females,  and  others  equally  well  in  either  case.  Special  search  was 


36         JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

made  for  some  indications  that  the  theory  that  the  male  has  the 
greater  influence  on  color  was  true.  It  is  a  positive  fact  that  in  these 
2,170  crosses,  the  theory  does  not  hold.  I  could  get  no  tabulation,  the 
results  of  which  would  not  be  changed  by  the  withdrawal  of  certain 
male  crosses  and  the  substitution  of  certain  other  female  or  vice 
versa.  It  is  true  that  certain  mongrel  crosses  did  show  a  slight  pre- 
ponderance of  the  male  color  in  the  seedlings,  but  they  were  few  in 
number  and  the  withdrawal  of  a  very  few  crosses  would  have  changed 
the  result  to  the  other  side. 


Chairman  Manning:  I  think  we  have  time  to  give  some  discussion 
to  the  papers  that  have  been  presented,  and  I  presume  it  will  be  desir- 
able to  limit  the  period  of  each  speaker  to  three  or  five  minutes  in  or- 
der that  all  who  are  interested  may  have  something  to  say  on  the  sub- 
ject. 

I  will  call  upon  Mr.  Rawson,  who  I  think  has  had  some  experience 
in  irrigation  in  New  England,  to  open  the  discussion  of  Professor 
King's  paper. 

Mr.  Rawson :  I  do  not  know  that  I  can  say  anything  very  bene- 
ficial to  you  on  the  paper  that  you  have  asked  me  to  discuss.  I  en- 
joyed it  very  much  and  I  know  that  we  are  speaking  to-day  to  gentle- 
men who  represent  not  only  the  section  here,  but  all  parts  of  the 
United  States.  Probably  no  representative  gathering  equal  to  this 
one,  ever  came  together  before  although  we  may  not  be  so  great  in 
number  as  we  have  been  on  other  occasions. 

The  subject  of  irrigation  is  one  in  which  I  have  been  interested 
for  the  last  forty  years,  and  probably  I  was  one  of  the  first  irriga- 
tors  in  the  East.  You  all  know  that  irrigation  is  very  beneficial  to 
the  growth  of  plants,  because  all  plants  contain  from  70  to  90  per 
cent  moisture,  and  it  is  therefore  the  largest  part  of  the  plant,  and  for 
that  reason  it  is  an  article  that  must  be  supplied.  It  follows  therefore, 
that  those  of  us  who  have  irrigation  plants  and  use  them  to  any  great 
extent  are  the  most  successful  ones  in  producing  crops,  not  only  in 
the  East,  but  in  every  other  section  of  the  country  where  irrigation  has 
been  practiced.  The  subject  of  irrigation  is  in  its  infancy.  There  are 
various  ways  of  doing  it ;  there  is  sub-irrigation,  but  the  irrigation 
which  we  in  the  East  practice  is  that  of  supplying  in  some  way  about 
one  inch  of  water  to  the  surface  of  the  soil  once  a  week.  That  is  equal 
to  the  amount  of  the  natural  rainfall  which  is  nearly  fifty  inches  a 
year,  and  if  we  can  supply  one  inch  of  water  per  week  to  the  soil,  we 
will  get  a  good  crop,  no  matter  what  we  grow.  I  know  that  the  cost 
of  irrigation  plants  in  many  sections  of  the  country  is  equal  to  mo're 
than  the  cost  of  the  land  which  they  irrigate,  but  as  the  land  which 
we  cultivate  is  used  as  a  machine  and  as  the  water  which  we  supply 
is  nourishment  to  the  plant,  it  seems  to  me  the  most  important  thing 
for  us  to  have  is  nourishment  and  for  that  reason  we  have  expended 
large  amounts  of  capital  amounting  to  $10,000,  $25,000  and  even  $50,- 
000  in  some  cases  for  irrigating  plants  and  we  get  our  money  back  very 


NATIONAL    COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  37 

quickly  on  the  investment.  I  have  known  many  cases  where  crops 
would  produce  $2,000  and  $2,500  per  acre,  where  if  we  had  not  irri- 
gated, the  land  would  have  yielded  not  more  than  $1,000.  In  these 
cases  we  not  only  get  our  money  back  but  we  get  good  interest  for  all 
years  to  come,  and  for  that  reason,  the  intensive  farmers  of  the  East 
all  have  their  irrigation  plants  and  put  them  to  practical  use. 

Chairman  Manning:  Dr.  Galloway,  may  we  ask  you  to  say  a 
few  words  on  this  subject? 

Dr.  Galloway:  It  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  the  details  of  this 
paper,  except  possibly  to  emphasize  the  point  that  he  strongly  brought 
out,  namely,  that  the  soil  can  no  longer  be  considered  a  simple  propo- 
sition. If  we  go  back  in  history  we  find  now  and  then  some  individual 
or  set  of  individuals  who  claim  that  they  have  discovered  the  secret  of 
handling  soils  by  some  chemical  process.  Years  ago  it  was  the  doc- 
trine of  the  chemist  that  by  chemical  analysis  we  could  determine  the 
needs  of  the  soil.  That  has  been  discredited,  and  the  point  I  wish  to 
make  is  that  Professor  King  has  pointed  out  that  the  soil  is  a  great 
laboratory  wherein  this  work  is  being  carried  on  and  there  is  any  one 
of  two,  three  or  a  half  a  dozen  things  to  which  we  can  attribute  sue  - 
cess  of  crops,  but  we  must  look  at  the  combination  of  things  and 
study  the  proposition  from  that  standpoint. 

Chairman  Manning:  I  will  call  for  a  discussion  of  Dr.  Woods' 
paper  on  "Plant  Diseases." 

Professor  Rane :  I  might  say  the  subject  was  very  broadly  treated 
and  I  am  sure  we  are  all  interested.  It  seems  to  me  all  of  the  papers 
we  have  heard  this  morning  dovetail  into  each  other  very  closely.  The 
more  I  listened  to  the  subjects  the  more  I  was  impressed  with  the 
fact  that  after  all  the  soil  is  one  of  the  fundamentals  of  crop  growth. 
I  have  been  in  educational  lines  for  a  number  of  years,  and  I  think 
that  if  there  is  anything  that  I  have  been  impressed  with  more  than 
anything  else,  it  is  that  if  we  do  not  have  much  soil,  there  is  no  use 
of  anything  else.  The  more  you  know  about  a  soil  the  greater  chances 
there  are  of  success.  I  am  of  the  candid  opinion  that  oftentimes  many 
of  our  diseases  and  many  of  our  insect  depredations  are  brought  about 
more  from  certain  conditions  of  soil  than  any  other  thing.  Take  Mr. 
Rawson's  business  about  Boston  and  the  other  men  that  are  in  the 
market  gardening  work.  One  of  the  first  things  is  to  make  proper 
soil  for  the  particular  crops  they  are  endeavoring  to  grow.  I  have  been 
before  their  association  every  year  and  discussed  with  them  various 
subjects.  I  find  those  men  are  men  of  but  comparatively  little  educa- 
tion on  the  question  of  depredations.  The  most  essential  thing  is 
proper  soil,  then  provide  against  the  different  depredations  as  a  part 
of  the  culture  of  the  crop.  I  appreciate  most  highly  all  the  work  that 
has  been  done  along  these  lines,  but  I  think  we  ought  to  emphasize 
more  and  more  the  importance,  as  these  papers  have  brought  out,  of 
getting  in  the  first  place  a  proper  soil,  then  get  at  the  proper  method  of 
handling  it. 

Professor  Alwood :  Dr.  Woods  said  something  in  his  paper  that 
I  want  to  repeat,  because  I  thought  perhaps  I  have  been  a  great  sinner 


38          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

in  the  line  of  many  publications,  little  leaflets,  bulletins  and  so  on,  and 
I  long  ago  came  to  the  conclusion  that  what  we  needed  was  not  so 
many  publications,  but  to  train  young  men  to  do  the  work,  and  I 
tried  in  a  small  way,  a  few  men  that  came  under  my  care.  The  govern- 
ment is  publishing  vast  quantities  of  literature,  bulletins — we  are  bulle- 
tined to  death,  while  the  stations  are  also  publishing  vast  quantities  of 
bulletins,  tons  and  trainloads  of  them  every  year,  and  yet  they  are  not 
training  men  enough  to  fill  the  places  that  are  open  for  them.  It  now 
seems  to  me  that  much  of  the  time  put  upon  bulletins  and  other 
publications  of  the  stations  and  by  the  government,  most  of  which  are 
thrown  away,  had  better  be  spent  in  teaching  men  to  do  things  and 
to  go  out  into  the  fields  and  do  things  well  and  thus  accomplish  some- 
thing, come  in  contact  with  the  growers  and  show  them  how  to  do 
some  things  well. 

Mr.  McNeill:  In  regard  to  that  recommendation  to  publish  fewer 
bulletins,  I  would  say- — don't  do  it.  The  bulletin  is  just  as  essential  to 
the  success  of  all  these  movements  as  the  men.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  bulletin  is  the  pioneer. 

Until  you  can  make  a  thing  familiar  to  the  people,  and  to  the  gen- 
eral public  by  printed  matter,  your  men's  time  is  largely  wasted.  The 
training  of  men  is  an  expensive  operation.  Good  men  are  rare  articles. 
There  are  only  a  few  of  them  and  we  have  got  to  take  care  of  them 
very  carefully.  Do  not  publish  fewer  bulletins  but  rather  train  more 
men,  and  support  those  colleges  more  liberally  that  are  training  men 
in  a  first-class  manner.  The  McDonald  College  in  our  own  country  and 
a  thousand  and  one  of  that  sort  here  in  the  States,  are  all  practical 
sources  of  help. 

Mr.  Quaintance :  In  Mr.  Woods'  paper  he  spoke  of  our  men  going 
into  the  fields  with  the  growers.  I  wish  to  emphasize  that,  and  I  think 
there  is  need  at  the  present  time  for  more  experienced  men  to  go  into 
the  field  and  gardens  and  actually  show  and  demonstrate  what  they 
are  teaching. 

Mr.  Robinson:  I  want  to  supplement  a  remark  by  Professor  Al- 
wood.  In  Albemarle  County,  Virginia,  we  had  read  bulletins  and  liter- 
ature of  all  kinds  and  with  very  little  result.  More  was  done  by  Mr. 
Scott  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  whom  Professor  Alwood 
trained,  coming  there  and  by  illustrating  orchard  work,  teaching  how 
to  combat  codling  moth,  bitter  rot,  etc.,  than  by  all  the  bulletins  put 
together  that  ever  came  into  that  county,  and  I  have  half  a  ton  of 
them. 

Mr.  McNeill:  If  it  had  not  been  for  the  John  the  Baptist  of  the 
Bulletin,  you  never  would  have  got  the  Savior.  You  would  still  be 
crying  in  the  wilderness. 

Dr.  Galloway:  In  regard  to  the  question  of  plant  diseases,  I  would 
like  to  call  attention  to  what  has  been  said  that  bore  pretty  hard  on  the 
soil,  and  the  inference  might  be  drawn  that  if  you  take  any  kind  of 
soil  and  put  plenty  of  moisture  with  it,  a  crop  can  be  grown.  I  hold 
that  something  else  must  be  put  with  the  soil  and  that  is  gray  matter. 
Unless  you  have  the  right  kind  of  brain  matter,  the  soil  is  not  worth 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL    OF   HORTICULTURE  39 

very  much.  I  remember  some  years  ago  I  had  a  young  man  interested  in 
plant  diseases;  he  said,  "If  we  had  the  kind  of  soil  that  they  have  in 

— ,  anybody  could  grow  lettuce;  it  is  not  a  question  of  the  man, 
it  is  a  question  of  the  kind  of  soil."  I  said,  "Do  you  really  think  it? 
Let  us  send  up  there  and  get  some."  We  got  half  a  dozen  wheelbar- 
rows full  and  put  up  a  bed  of  lettuce,  and  it  was  the  worst  diseased 
bed  of  lettuce  we  ever  had. 

Mr.  Pierson :  Something  that  was  said  along  this  line  started 
me  to  my  feet.  I  do  not  think  that  I  can  subscribe  to  the  thought, 
that  the  soil  is  the  ne  plus  ultra,  I  believe  the  man  behind  the  gun 
has  more  to  do  with  it.  Of  course  we  all  recognize  the  fact  that  the 
soil  is  a  very  important  factor;  we  cannot  grow  anything  good  on 
poor  soil,  but  you  must  have  gray  matter  behind  it. 

I  believe  on  the  question  of  plant  diseases,  we  are  paying  too 
much  attention  to  remedies.  We  should  pay  more  attention  to  the 
removal  of  causes  that  permit  the  plant  diseases.  Take  for  example 
black  spot,  which  is  so  injurious  to  the  rose  under  glass.  You  hardly 
ever  hear  black  spot  mentioned  in  these  days,  but  the  question  is  to 
find  the  cause  that  permitted  black  spot ;  to  try  to  cure  a  plant  that  has 
been  infected  with  black  spot,  is  like  trying  to  cure  a  man  of  con- 
sumption. The  thing  to  do  is  to  start  with  a  young,  healthy  plant  and 
keep  that  plant  healthy,  so  I  think  our  object  in  plant  diseases  is  to 
look  at  what  produces  the  cause  at  first  and  then  remedy  it. 

Mr.  Vaughan  asked  about  melon  diseases  in  certain  districts  in 
Colorado. 

Mr.  Pierson:  I  think  in  those  localities  that  were  mentioned  the 
climatic  conditions  are  such  that  there  are  no  diseases  that  interfere 
with  the  healthy  growth  of  the  melon,  and  necessarily  where  the 
foliage  and  plant  are  intact,  the  fruit  must  be  of  high  quality,  so  out- 
side crops  are  largely  the  result  of  accident  we  might  say,  rather,  of 
such  locality  where  the  conditions  are  favorable  to  such  plant  growth. 
Of  course,  under  glass  one  can  have  more  control  of  circumstances 
and  look  for  the  causes  that  produce  diseases  and  obviate  them  by 
getting  rid  of  the  cause  that  produces  them. 

Professor  Van  Deman :  There  is  one  other  thing  that  has  not 
been  touched  upon,  which  I  think  has  a  great  deal  to  do  with  this 
whole  subject,  and  that  is  climatology.  The  climatic  conditions  very 
largely  control  the  fungous  diseases.  We  come  into  the  arid  regions 
and  they  are  very  free  from  them;  for  instance,  there  are  certain 
fruits  that  may  grow  in  certain  climates  almost  irrespective  of  soil. 
The  cherry  for  example  will  grow  nowhere  in  the  United  States  as 
large  as  on  the  Pacific  coast,  especially  in  Oregon  and  Washington ; 
the  cherries  in'  that  region  are  not  equalled  anywhere  in  the  United 
States  and  it  is  largely  a  matter  of  climate.  They  may  be  left  alone, 
planted  and  almost  absolutely  neglected  and  yet  they  grow  success- 
fully because  of  the  peculiarly  favorable  climatic  conditions,  and  while 
we  are  discussing  this  matter  of  soil  and  all  those  other  parts  of  the 
subject,  we  must  take  into  consideration  the  climate  as  one  of  the 
factors. 


40          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

Professor  Taft:  Along  this  same  line  I  want  to  refer  to  an  in- 
stance we  had  in  Michigan.  As  many  of  you  know,  we  have  a  sec- 
tion in  the  southwest  of  Michigan  where  there  are  thousands  of  acres 
of  grapes  and  for  years  they  were  free  from  black  rot.  They  have  a 
well-drained  soil  and  at  the  time  I  am  speaking  of  had  a  number  of 
years  of  extreme  dry  weather  in  August  and  September,  and  as  a  re- 
sult of  this  condition,  they  grew  the  grape  without  spraying  and  with- 
out black  rot  for  two  or  three  years,  then  had  excessive  rainfall  you 
might  say  in  the  summer  time  and  the  result  is  this,  that  the  disease 
has  come  in  there  and  has  seriously  injured  the  grape  and  is  gradually 
spreading  until  it  covers  the  entire  section.  Right  here  was  the  need 
of  remedies  and  this  question  was  taken  up  and  we  found  we  could 
control  this  rot  by  spraying.  This  year  the  unsprayed  vineyards  have 
lost  the  entire  crop,  and  where  they  have  sprayed  thoroughly,  perhaps 
five  or  six  times  and  have  done  the  work  thoroughly,  they  have  saved 
the  crop,  there  is  hardly  a  grape  to  the  bunch  that  is  destroyed,  and 
when  it  comes  to  fighting  insects  and  diseases  we  ought  not  only1  to 
consider  the  soil  and  climate,  but  the  extreme  thoroughness  in  applica- 
tion which  I  think  was  referred  to  by  both  speakers.  Where  they 
have  tried  to  spray  and  control  rot,  by  two  or  three  applications,  it  has 
been  largely  a  failure.  We  have  had  the  same  thing  too  with  our 
apple  orchards  this  year.  We  found  that  the  men  who  sprayed  the 
longest  and  those  who  were  the  most  thorough  in  their  applications 
had  the  best  success.  They  sprayed  five  or  six  or  seven  times  and 
had  fruit  free  from  scab,  while  the  unsprayed  trees,  or  those  sprayed 
two  or  three  times,  have  suffered  seriously. 

Mr.  Kendel :  Dr.  Woods  spoke  about  frosts  and  it  recalled  to  my 
mind  a  visit  I  made  a  couple  of  weeks  ago  with  a  florist  who  was 
protecting  himself  against  early  frosts  in  my  section  of  the  country; 
we  are  apt  to  have  a  frost  in  October  and  then  six  weeks  of  nice 
weather  following.  Two  years  ago  it  occurred  the  20th  of  September 
when  it  touched  the  corn,  squashes  and  all  kinds  of  crops.  This  man 
had  a  tent  as  large  as  this  room  constructed  of  mosquito  netting  that 
he  has  used  for  three  years  for  covering  his  dahlias.  The  first  year 
he  put  this  up  the  outfit  was  paid  for  from  cuttings  of  dahlias  that 
were  under  the  tent  after  the  first  frost.  Outside  of  the  tent  every- 
thing was  destroyed  and  under  it  everything  was  saved.  I  do  not 
know  the  accuracy  of  a  statement  which  I  read  some  time  ago,  that 
the  frost  created  an  acid  in  the  plant  that  destroyed  it.  I  have  my 
doubts  whether  that  is  true,  because  some  years  ago  I  had  a  Chinese 
lily  growing  in  my  bedroom  and  the  fire  of  the  furnace  went  out  and 
the  plant  froze  solid,  the  water  in  the  dish  was  also  frozen  solid.  I 
set  that  Chinese  lily,  which  was  in  full  bloom,  into  my  wash  basin 
and  sprinkled  it  with  ice  water.  That  night  the  Chinese  lily  was 
blooming  as  though  nothing  had  happened.  Now,  if  the  frost  put 
acid  into  the  plant,  then  the  cold  water  took  it  out  again.  Possibly 
there  is  some  remedy  in  that  direction  for  preventing  damage  from  an 
early  frost. 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  41 

Chairman  Manning:  I  think  this  question  of  protection  that  Mr. 
Kendel  speaks  of  is  very  important  in  avoiding  the  effects  of  frost. 

Dr.  Galloway:  A  great  deal  of  work  is  being  done  in  the  matter 
of  frost  protection,  so  that  on  the  Pacific  coast  where  late  frosts  some- 
times cause  damage  to  citrus  fruits,  there  the  fruit  is  protected  by 
smudging,  by  water  spraying  and  other  processes.  The  question  of 
frost  protection  is  in  a  measure  a  pathological  question,  and  the  method 
of  frost  injuries  is  also  a  pathological  question.  The  question  the 
gentleman  just  raised  with  reference  to  the  cause  is  something  that  is 
well  known  to  those  who  have  had  experience  with  frost  troubles,  that 
is,  if  you  can  prevent  the  frost  from  quickly  going  out  of  the  plant, 
as  the  common  expression  is,  you  can  prevent  injury,  hence  water  upon 
a  growing  plant  produces  that  effect,  simply  due  to  changes  brought 
about  in  the  cell. 

A  Member:  I  think  we  might  take  up  the  subject  of  Florists' 
Flowers. 

Mr.  Pierson:  I  am  a  practical  florist  rather  than  a  breeder  or 
experimenter.  I  am  rather  inclined  to  look  at  the  profit,  or  discern 
as  far  as  possible  the  market  value.  I  have  rather  prided  myself  on 
the  ability  to  see  the  dollars  and  cents ;  Mr.  Rudd  has  mentioned  in 
his  paper  that  he  does  not  find  time  to  devote  to  the  scientific  aspect 
of  the  case,  but  Mr.  Rudd's  article  is  full  of  thought;  Mr.  Rudd  is 
a  thoughtful  man  and  anything  that  he  writes  always  makes  people 
think.  He  speaks  of  the  relation  between  the  variations  by  sports  and 
seedling  variations  and  shows  that  they  are  not  vastly  different.  I 
think  he  is  right  in  that.  I  think  the  ordinary  deterioration  in  cuttings 
comes  from  the  very  fact  that  we  are  not  the  close  observers  that  he 
says  we  should  be,  and  make  too  many  cuttings  from  deteriorated  parts 
of  the  plants,  for  we  look  at  them  collectively  rather  than  individually, 
even  in  one  particular  variety.  Take  for  example  our  native  tree  fruits 
of  the  forests,  and  there  are  probably  hundreds  or  thousands  of  varie- 
ties or  distinct  types  of  these  trees,  which  if  propagated  by  grafting 
would  be  perpetuated,  but  we  are  not  close  observers  and  do  not  pick 
out  those  particular  types  of  trees  and  do  not  appreciate  them.  With  the 
florist's  flowers  you  will  find  this  quite  marked  in  some  cases.  You 
will  remember  the  Pierson  fern  which  was  sent  out  some  time  ago. 
That  was  an  accident  if  we  may  so  term  it.  One  of  my  young  men 
who  was  a  close  observer  saw  in  the  small  plant  as  it  came  from  the 
original  plant  a  marked  variation  in  the  evolution  of  the  leaf.  It  was 
called  to  my  attention,  laid  aside  and  developed  into  a  plant  that  was 
absolutely  distinct  from  the  original.  This  was  not  so  wonderful  in 
itself,  but  it  is  in  the  fact  that  from  this  variation  so  many  different 
and  unique  forms  of  this  species  were  developed.  Now  we  have  the 
elegantissima,  showing  the  tendency  of  this  particular  plant  to  under- 
go bud  variation  the  same  as  seedlings  so  often  do.  He  speaks  about 
carnations  deteriorating.  I  think  we  often  assume  that  varieties  deteri- 
orate because  they  are  sent  out  before  they  become  well  fixed.  They 
do  not  stand  the  test  of  time,  consequently  we  are  apt  to  hastily  say 
that  they  deteriorate.  I  claim  they  never  ought  to  have  been  christened. 


42          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

The  best  varieties  like  the  Lawson  and  some  of  that  type  will  not 
necessarily  deteriorate.  We  should  be  more  careful  in  the  selection 
of  buds  and  perpetuate  the  type  which  is  most  desirable.  We  want 
thoroughness,  we  want  to  be  closer  observers  and  many  things  we 
hastily  say  are  wrong  are  simply  due  to  the  fact  of  our  superficiality. 

Professor  Alwood:  I  would  like  to  call  on  Dr.  Woods  on  bud 
variations. 

Dr.  Woods:  Referring  to  the  case  of  the  fern  varieties  just  dis- 
cussed, might  it  not  be  possible  that  these  were  really  hybrids  instead 
of  varieties  produced  by  bud  variation?  It  is  well  known,  of  course, 
that  the  crossing  of  ferns  is  readily  accomplished  through  the  trans- 
fer of  spermatozoids — small  bodies  corresponding  to  the  pollen  of  higher 
plants.  While  some  variation  might  occur  in  ferns  as  a  result  of  feed- 
ing and  of  changed  environment,  or  as  a  result  of  what  might  be  called 
mutations,  it  seems  to  me  more  probable  that  such  variations  are  to 
be  explained  as  a  result  of  some  previous  crossing  or  hybridization, 
probably  accidentally  accomplished.  The  difference  between  a  bud 
variety  and  a  variety  produced  by  hybridization  is,  as  Mr.  Rudd  has 
pointed  out,  often  not  very  great.  But  variations  of  the  order  of  muta- 
tions are  sometimes  produced  by  high  feeding  or  by  change  in  environ- 
ment. This  is  particularly  noticeable  in  bringing  tropical  plants  north, 
where  they  tend  to  break  up  into  a  large  number  of  varieties  through 
the  influence  of  climate.  No  new  potentiality,  however,  can  be  intro- 
duced into  a  plant  by  this  process  of  breeding,  and  at  best  it  is  a  chance 
method  of  securing  variation.  On  the  other  hand,  by  hybridization  or 
crossing,  distinct  potentialities  of  different  individuals  can  be  mixed  in 
almost  any  desired  relation,  and,  if  the  work  is  intelligently  done,  it 
can  be  made  much  more  effective  than  dependence  upon  bud  variation 
as  a  method  of  securing  new  varieties. 

AFTERNOON  SESSION. 
CHAIRMAN,  PROFESSOR  L.  R.  TAFT. 

NUT  CULTURE  IN  OUR  RURAL  ECONOMY. 
WM.  A.  TAYLOR,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

Discussion  of  the  attractiveness  and  profit  of  nut  culture  has  in 
recent  years  awakened  much  interest  among  our  people  in  the  possibili- 
ties of  this  rather  newly  developed  industry.  Among  dwellers  in  cities 
and  towns  the  idea  of  nut  culture  appears  to  be  particularly  attrac- 
tive and  in  the  case  of  the  average  person  to  suggest  as  its  principal 
feature  the  sylvan  shade  and  bosky  dell  of  the  nut  harvest  rather 
than  the  hard  work  essential  to  success  in  other  lines  of  orcharding. 

As  the  result  of  considerable  attention  to  the  subject,  the  writer 
has  been  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  in  the  mind  of  the  average  per- 
son the  term  nut  culture  stands  for : 

1st.  A  very  pleasant  harvest  time  in  which  a  bountiful  crop  of 
beautiful  nuts  of  fine  quality  is  garnered  to  be  later  sold  at  very  re- 
munerative prices. 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  43 

2nd.  The  production  at  low  cost  and  ultimate  sale  at  high  prices 
of  a  considerable  quantity  of  valuable  chestnut,  walnut,  hickory  or 
other  nut  tree  timber  to  be  derived  from  the  thinning  out  of  the  super- 
fluous trees  of  the  grove  or  orchard. 

In  short,  the  general  conception  of  nut  culture  among  our  people 
is  decidedly  visionary  and  highly  tinged  with  sentiment.  Doubtless  be- 
cause of  the  fact  that  almost  our  entire  domestic  supply  of  tree  grown 
nuts  has  until  very  recently  been  derived  from  the  forests,  there  is  a 
deeply  imbedded  conviction  in  the  average  American  mind  that  nut 
culture  is  a  phase  of  forestry  rather  than  of  pomology ;  that  it  is  closer 
kin  to  timber  production  than  to  fruit  growing.  With  the  species 
known  to  the  writer  this  view  is  entirely  and  essentially  erroneous. 

The  production  of  straight  grained,  sound  and  valuable  timber 
necessitates  close  planting  with  a  view  to  forcing  an  erect  and  rela- 
tively tall  trunk.  This  in  turn  is  accompanied  by  the  rapid  and  con- 
tinuously progressive  smothering  of  the  lower  branches  as  the  crown 
of  the  tree  reaches  upward  with  the  rising  forest  floor.  The  result 
is  a  tall  pole  with  a  relatively  small  tuft  of  young  branches  such  as 
alone  are  capable  of  producing  blossoms  and  nuts.  The  apparent 
abundant  yields  of  chestnuts,  walnuts  or  pecans  occasionally  observed 
in  the  crowded  forest  would  not  in  fact  be  large  yields  at  all  if  re- 
duced to  the  basis  of  bushels  or  pounds  per  acre. 

The  production  of  good  crops  of  nuts  of  most  species  on  the  con- 
trary necessitates  the  development  and  maintenance  of  a  relatively 
large  head  of  strong  growing  young  wood  which  can  only  be  done 
under  such  conditions  as  provide  an  abundance  of  air  and  sunshine. 
All  experienced  nut  growers  agree  to  the  above  statements.  I  take 
it  though  there  is  still  much  difference  of  opinion  among  them  as  to 
the  necessity  of  cultivation,  fertilizing,  pruning  and  in  specific  in- 
stances, spraying  to  control  injurious  insects  and  diseases.  Many 
maintain  that  the  leaf  imbedded,  unstirred  soil  of  the  forest  constitutes 
the  ideal  soil  condition  provided  other  factors  be  right.  The  writer 
is  strongly  of  the  opinion,  however,  that  where  nut  trees  are  planted 
primarily  for  the  crops  they  yield  rather  than  as  windbreaks  or  for 
road  side  ornamentation  or  shade  near  dwellings,  systematic  cultiva- 
tion including  judicious  use  of  suitable  cover  crops  will  be  found 
essential.  The  leaf  mold  mulch  method  of  humus  production  is  not 
practicable  under  the  sunlight  and  moisture  dispelling  conditions  of 
the  orchard,  so  man  must  exercise  a  directing  influence  over  the  con- 
ditions of  plant  growth  if  he  desires  more  regular  and  abundant  crops 
than  the  species  concerned  ordinarily  produces  in  its  natural  state.  The 
fact  is  that  Nature's  methods  do  not  promote  maximum  productiveness 
nor  highest  quality  of  product  as  judged  from  the  standpoint  of  man's 
needs.  Heavy  crops  of  nuts  in  the  forests  are  at  most  invariably  fol- 
lowed by  very  short  crops  or  even  total  failure  in  many  cases  appar- 
ently through  inability  of  the  unaided  tree  to  set  a  normal  crop  of  well 
developed  fruit  buds  while  maturing  a  heavy  yield  of  nuts.  As  with 
our  pomaceous  and  stone  fruits  we  must  steady  the  yields  by  furnish- 
ing or  rendering  available  sufficient  fertility  and  conversely  in  some 


44          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

cases  by  reducing  the  set  of  nuts  in  full  crop  years  by  judicious  prun- 
ing or  even  by  hand  i binning  of  over  productive  varieties  of  some 
species.  Regularity  of  abundant  cropping  is  tbe  exception  rather  than 
llu-  rule  under  the  fores!  condition  and  doubtless  the  most  certain  and 
economical  way  of  insuring  it  is  by  systematic  orchard  cultivation.  At 
least  this  lias  been  found  true  with  the  almond  and  the  Persian  walnut 
on  llu-  Pacific  coast  where  tbe  production  has  assumed  most  import- 
ance. There  may  be  exceptions  to  this  general  rule  as  with  the  pecan 
on  alluvial  soils  that  are  abundantly  fertile  and  moist  and  there  may 
be  cases  where  the  cheapness  of  the  land  and  its  inadaptability  to 
other  profitable  uses  may  justify  an  investment  in  nut  growing  where 
only  occasional  full  crops  may  reasonably  be  expected  as  with  the 
sprout  Drafted  chestnut  orchards  of  the  rough  lands  of  the  Alleghany 
and  Blue  Ridge  mountain  regions.  But  the  important  commercial 
development  of  the  industry  now  under  way  and  likely  to  show  large 
increase  during  the  next  de-cade  will  undoubtedly  be  along  lines  of 
orchard  practice  not  differing  much  in  principle  from  those  now  recog- 
ni/ed  as  essential  in  tbe  production  of  the  deciduous  tree  fruits. 

Of  the  present  status  of  nut  culture  in  the  United  States  little  can 
be  shown  in  statistical  form.  The  figures  as  compiled  from  the  twelfth 
census,  covering  the  crop  year  of  1899,  were  as  shown  in  the  following 
table: 

Nut  trees  and  product  in  Continental  United  States,  census  of  1900: 

Trees.  Pounds. 

Almond   1.619,072  7,142,710 

Cocoanut 48.664  136,650 

Pecan    643,292  3,206,850 

Persian  or  English  Walnut 726,798  10,668,065 

Miscellaneous  nuts 634,460  380, L'M  1 

Acres.  Bushels. 

Peanuts    51(i.r,:,j  11,964,109 

Value  of  tree  nuts.  $l,<)4'.),'j:n.    In  all  U.  S.,  $1,950,161. 

Value  of  peanuts,  $7,270, .M.~>. 

Total  value  of  nuts  produced,  $'.), 220,446. 

No  statistics  nor  reliable  estimates  of  later  date  relating  to  the 
entire  country  are  available,  but  by  combining  the  known  data  on 
imports  of  almonds  and  walnuts  with  the  commercial  estimates  of  the 
yields  of  those  nuts  in  California  a  fair  notion  of  the  quantity  of  those 
nuts  required  to  meet  the  present  demands  may  be  gained. 

Approximate  quantity  of  almonds  and  walnuts  consumed  in  United 
States,  1902-3  to  1906-7 : 

ALMONDS. 

1902-3.  1903-4,  1904-5,  1905-6,  1906-7, 
It's.                 Ibs.                   Ibs.                   Ibs.  ll.s. 

Imported     8,142,164  9,838,852  11,745,081  15,009,326  14,233,613 

Home    grown 6,540,000  6,400,000  1,600,000  4,200,000  1.400,000 

Total 14,682,164     16,238,852     13,345,081     19,209,326     15,633,613 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF  HORTICULTURE  45 

WALNUTS. 

1902-3,         1903-4,          1904-5,          1905-6,          1906-7, 

Ibs.  Ibs.  Ibs.  Ibs.  Ibs. 

Imported     12.362.5*7     23,670,761  21,684,104     ! 

Home    grown 17,140.000     11,000,000  15,180,000     12.800,000     12,000,000 


Total 29.502.567     34,670.761     36,864.104     37.717.02S     44, r.i>7. :.:»•_' 

These  figures  appear  to  indicate  an  increasing  consumption  of 
almonds  and  especially  of  walnuts  and  though  the  data  on  other  nuts 
are  lacking  there  has  unquestionably  been  larger  consumption  of  pecans, 
filberts,  chestnuts  and  peanuts  in  recent  years  and  a  considerably  in- 
creased home  production.  It  should  be  noted  that  we  are  still  importing 
much  the  larger  portion  of  the  almonds  and  walnuts  that  we  are  con- 
suming, domestic  production  not  having  yet  overtaken  home  consump- 
tion. 

Our  total  imports  and  exports  of  nuts  for  the  last  year  were  as 
follows : 

IMPORTS    OF    NUTS,    FISCAL   YEAR    1906-7. 

Pounds,  Value. 

Almonds   14,233,613  $2,331,816 

Cocoanuts,  free   1,349,562 

Cocoanut  meat,  broken,  or  copra,  not  shredded, 

desiccated  or  prepared,   free 7,064,532  302,132 

Cream  and  Brazil,  free 252,538  650,488 

Palm  and  palm  nut  kernels,  free 39,329 

Walnuts,  dutiable   32,597,592  2,969,649 

All  other  free 

All  other  dutiable 2,100,274 


Total  imports $9,743,250 

EXPORTS  OF  DOMESTIC   NUTS,  FISCAL   YEAR    1906-7. 

Peanuts    6,386,012  Ibs.        $278,236 

All  other 103,929 


Total  exports $382,165 

Of  the  large  number  of  species  of  nuts  that  enter  into  consumption 
in  this  country  those  that  appear  to  offer  greatest  promise  to  the 
grower  are  the  almond,  Persian  walnut,  pecan,  Japanese  and  European 
chestnuts.  The  efforts  at  filbert  culture  thus  far  made  in  the  United 
States  have  not  warranted  extensive  commercial  plantings  though  the 
impossibility  of  profitable  filbert  culture  has  by  no  means  been  demon- 
strated. The  improvement  of  the  native  chestnut  and  chinkapin,  the 
Eastern  and  the  California  black  walnuts,  the  butternut,  the  shagbark 
and  the  shellbark  is  well  worthy  of  the  attention  of  the  amateur  and 
the  breeder. 

Two  species,  the  almond  and  the  Persian  walnut,  may  be  said  to  be 
upon  a  sound  economic  cultural  basis  on  the  Pacific  coast,  and  one — 


46         JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

the  pecan — is  approaching  that  status  in  the  Gulf  and  South  Atlantic 
States. 

Numerous  questions  affecting  the  nut  industry  are  pressing  for 
solution,  the  rapidity  with  which  plantings  have  been  made  having  pre- 
vented the  acquirement  of  enlightening  experience  as  a  guide  to  the 
commercial  planters. 

The  important  questions  of  self-fertility  or  sterility  of  varieties, 
relative  congeniality  and  adaptability  of  grafting  stocks,  resistance  to 
diseases  and  insects,  etc.,  as  well  as  the  broad  and  important  question 
of  relative  adaptability  of  varieties  to  soils  and  regions  demand  thor- 
ough and  systematic  investigation  if  the  industry  is  to  have  healthy 
and  normal  economic  development. 


COMMERCIAL  GROWING  OF  GARDEN  VEGETABLES. 
W.  W.  RAWSON,  BOSTON,  MASS. 

The  culture  of  vegetables  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  profit- 
able of  the  many  branches  of  agriculture,  and  from  the  fact  that  the 
demand  for  fresh  vegetables  is  so  great  in  our  larger  towns  and  cities 
the  growing  of  these  crops  has  become  a  business  followed  by  many 
situated  near  the  large  markets.  The  business  as  carried  on  to-day  is 
termed  market  gardening  to  distinguish  it  from,  the  old-fashioned 
farming.  It  requires  a  vast  amount  of  knowledge  and  experience  to  be 
a  successful  market  gardener  and  one  must  not  only  know  how  to  grow 
but  also  what  to  grow.  There  are  many  crops  of  vegetables  which  may 
be  termed  annual  products,  but  there  are  a  number  of  varieties  which 
may  be  grown  to  a  high  point  of  perfection  at  all  seasons  by  the  use 
of  glass. 

The  kitchen  garden,  as  it  is  often  termed,  includes  many  of  these 
varieties  and  especially  those  which  are  most  desired  by  the  market 
gardener,  namely,  lettuce,  cucumbers,  cabbage,  onions,  radishes,  spin- 
ach, beets,  celery,  carrots,  parsnips,  tomatoes,  cauliflower,  squashes, 
peas,  beans  and  corn. 

A  good  many  of  these  may  be  called  luxuries  and  are  quite  difficult 
to  grow,  but  there  exists  a  large  demand  for  them  in  our  larger  cities 
and  towns  and  those  market  gardeners  who  specialize  in  the  above 
varieties  and  grow  them  successfully  have  built  up  a  business  or  pro- 
fession which  is  very  profitable. 

It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  it  is  more  difficult  to  grow  crops  in 
the  field  than  under  glass  and  those  who  have  the  best  knowledge  of 
the  business  grow  many  of  the  finer  vegetables  in  that  way. 

To  be  successful  requires  not  only  a  large  capital  and  good  land, 
but  also  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  business.  While  in  field  culture, 
we  use  the  land  for  what  it  will  produce  with  a  little  cultivation  and 
some  fertilization,  under  glass  we  use  land  as  a  machine,  putting  into 
it  such  a  crop  as  we  wish  to  produce  and  using  such  fertilizers  as  that 
special  crop  requires. 


i 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  47 

As  the  manufacturer  puts  into  his  machine  the  materials  which 
with  proper  care  and  attention  turn  into  the  finished  product,  so  it  is 
with  the  grower  producing  his  crop  from  the  soil. 

The  largest  material  necessary  to  produce  any  crop  is  moisture  or 
water,  consequently  no  vegetable  grower  or  market  gardener  can  suc- 
ceed without  an  irrigation  plant.  This  is  true  in  the  field  as  well  as 
Binder  glass,  though  under  glass  the  water  can  be  regulated  according 
co  the  requirements  of  the  crop,  while  in  the  field  the  rains  are  often- 
times so  heavy  as  to  cause  more  damage  than  benefit. 

The  fertilizers  are  applied  before  the  crop  is  planted  and  as  the  crop 
to  be  grown  demands. 

There  is  only  one  satisfactory  complete  fertilizer  and  that  is  stable 
manure  which  is  applied  in  such  quantities  as  the  crops  require. 
Wherever  stable  manure  cannot  be  obtained  it  is  desirable  to  use  some 
form  of  commercial  fertilizer  possessing  the  required  amount  of  nitro- 
gen and  potash  for  that  particular  crop  and  soil,  but  for  a  general  fer- 
tilizer there  is  nothing  equal  to  stable  manure. 

Many  wonder  how  the  land  can  stand  so  much  stable  manure 
applied  many  times  a  year  and  for  many  years  without  a  rest,  but  it 
does  stand  it  and  will  produce  the  best  of  crops  even  after  a  con- 
tinual treatment  of  forty  or  fifty  years. 

There  is  however  one  complete  fertilizer  that  has  been  used  to  some 
extent  the  past  two  or  three  years  and  that  is  sheep  manure.  When 
used  as  a  top  dressing  for  second  crops  in  the  houses  I  have  found  it 
to  be  very  satisfactory.  It  should  be  used  sparingly,  however,  and  only 
in  the  pulverized  form,  which  hastens  its  availability. 

Where  stable  manure  is  impossible  to  obtain  sheep  manure  may 
serve  as  a  substitute  better  than  the  commercial  fertilizer,  as  it  is  a 
complete  manure,  thereby  possessing  all  the  elements  necessary  for  plant 
life. 

In  the  hothouses  there  are  many  insects,  weeds,  and  fungi  that  get 
into  the  soil  and  endanger  the  crop,  but  these  are  eliminated  by  a  sys- 
tem of  sterilization  or  cooking  of  the  soil  at  a  temperature  of  212 
degrees. 

This  process  will  renovate  the  soil  and  produce  astonishingly  large 
and  perfect  crops. 

After  sterilizing  and  getting  the  soil  into  perfect  condition  with  an 
application  of  20  to  30  cords  of  manure  the  crop  surely  should  grow 
with  proper  care  and  attention.  All  crops  require  a  certain  amount  of 
light,  heat,  air  and  moisture  and  it  depends  wholly  on  the  application 
of  these  four  items  how  well  the  crop  will  grow  and  how  perfectly  it 
will  mature. 

During  the  short  days  of  winter  we  are  deficient  in  light,  but  this 
can  be  supplied  by  the  use  of  electric  arc  lights  which  will  quicken  the 
crop  about  15  per  cent.  The  air  should  be  always  pure  and  so  regulated 
by  ventilation  as  not  to  hurt  the  growing  crop  by  a  draft. 

The  heat  is  supplied  by  the  sun  and  by  steam  conducted  from  the 
boilers  by  pipes  to  all  portions  of  the  houses.  The  amount  of  steam 
can  be  regulated  by  valves  placed  near  the  boilers,  thus  giving  in  each 


48         JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

house  the  necessary  amount.  Large  boilers  are  required  to  produce 
steam  at  as  low  a  pressure  as  possible  to  heat  large  territories  of  glass, 
that  is,  by  the  acre.  The  use  of  hot  water  is  an  ancient  process  to  the 
modern  market  gardener.  When  heating  by  steam  the  pipes  are  placed 
3  or  4  feet  above  the  surface  of  the  soil  at  such  distances  apart  as 
the  desired  temperature  requires,  and  only  enough  pipes  to  give  the 
highest  temperature  required  in  the  coldest  season. 

The  moisture  or  water  is  supplied  from  pipes  arranged  similar  to 
the  steam  pipes  and  used  as  the  crops  demand.  I  have  spoken  of  the 
use  of  electricity  in  the  giving  of  light,  but  we  have  found  that  it  is 
equally  as  beneficial  when  applied  to  the  soil  by  means  of  a  current 
passing  through  the  soil  from  a  battery  at  each  end  of  the  bed  and 
connected  with  a  wire. 

The  circulation  is  manifest  through  all  the  soil  to  a  marked  degree. 
The  amount  of  this  has  to  be  tested  at  all  points  of  the  bed  until  the 
proper  amount  of  current  is  obtained,  otherwise  if  too  high  the  crop 
will  show  a  forced  growth.  This  experiment  has  only  just  begun  and 
when  we  can  regulate  the  current  to  that  amount  which  is  of  the 
greatest  benefit  without  forcing  the  crop  too  much  it  will  prove  of  the 
greatest  value  to  the  modern  market  gardener.  I  have  tried  the  experi- 
ment in  one  of  my  houses  in  a  bed  400  feet  long,  and  the  difference  in 
growth  between  that  bed  and  one  not  treated  was  quite  marked. 

Now  a  word  about  greenhouses  and  their  construction.  The 
foundation  should  be  of  cement,  the  frame  of  iron  and  the  purlins  in 
cold  climates  of  wood.  The  glass  should  be  as  large  as  possible, 
20  in.  by  30  in.  having  been  found  to  be  the  most  economical.  As  to 
the  size  of  the  houses,  I  would  recommend  one  20  feet  wide  to  be  100 
feet  long;  one  30  feet  wide  to  be  200  feet  long;  one  40  feet  wide  to 
be  300  feet  long;  and  one  50  feet  wide  to  be  400  feet  long.  These 
proportions  have  proved  to  be  the  most  satisfactory,  but  I  should 
recommend  the  larger  size  as  being  much  more  economical  to  heat 
and  regulate. 

I  have  only  mentioned  the  way  to  produce  crops  as  a  whole  in  the 
market  garden.  Each  one  of  the  crops  mentioned  above  could  easily 
be  made  the  subject  of  a  lecture  by  itself,  but  I  have  not  the  time  to 
go  into  the  matter  now.  This  subject  of  the  commercial  culture  of 
vegetables  has  been  studied  deeply  in  New  England  and  the  prosperity 
of  the  majority  of  our  market  gardeners  shows  with  what  success. 

There  are  many  branches  of  agriculture  and  horticulture  which 
may  be  familiar  to  many  men,  but  the  method  to-day  is  to  intensify 
and  specialize,  and  the  truly  successful  man  is  the  one  who  cultivates 
only  a  few  crops,  those  to  which  his  land  and  climate  are  best  adapted 
and  those  which  have  the  greatest  demand  in  his  market.  We  have 
found  in  New  England  that  while  we  depend  upon  the  farmers  of  the 
West  and  South  for  many  of  the  necessities,  they  look  to  us  for  many 
of  the  finer  vegetables  to  supply  them  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year. 

While  corn,  wheat,  oats  and  potatoes  are  their  agricultural  pro- 
ducts, lettuce,  cucumbers  and  celery  are  ours. 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  49 

Massachusetts  is  not  an  agricultural  state,  but  she  produces  annu- 
ally at  the  present  time  $65,000,000  worth  of  products,  her  largest  crop 
being  cucumbers  under  glass. 

In  the  little  town  of  Arlington  there  are  to-day  over  100  acres  of 
glass  where  thirty  years  ago  there  was  not  one  acre,  and  we  produce 
there  more  products  for  our  acreage  than  any  other  town  in 
the  country,  and  I  may  say,  the  world.  There  are  many  hundreds  of 
acres  under  glass  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  all  producing  crops 
of  lettuce  and  cucumbers  where  forty  years  ago  no  glass  was  used. 

The  men  of  those  days  did  well  on  their  outside  growing,  but  by 
the  intelligent  use  of  all  the  new  methods  and  inventions  great  changes 
have  been  made.  The  sons  of  those  men  followed  their  fathers  and 
are  cultivating  successfully  to-day  the  same  land  with  the  improved 
methods  and  ever  looking  forward  to  still  greater  improvements  and 
thereby  larger  and  better  crops.  The  most  successful  of  these  present 
market  gardeners  confine  themselves  to  a  few  crops  having  a  ready  sale 
all  the  season,  thereby  having  a  continuous  crop  and  steady  returns. 

All  of  these  men  will  testify  that  the  business  can  be  made  as 
profitable  as  any  other  business  and  they  can  live  better,  feel  better 
and  know  that  what  they  enjoy  really  belongs  to  them  and  is  not 
obtained  by  speculation. 

The  time  is  coming  when  the  business  of  agriculture  will  stand  as 
high  as  any  calling  and  in  the  future  those  engaged  in  it  will  be  looked 
up  to  as  men  of  intelligence  and  knowledge  and  be  respected  as  ex- 
ponents of  the  leading  industry  of  mankind. 

To  the  young  men  of  today  I  would  say,  "study  agriculture.  Apply 
yourself  to  that  part  of  it  to  which  you  are  adapted  and  which  you  like 
best  and  you  may  be  sure  there  is  no  calling  in  which  you  will  take 
greater  pleasure."  The  profit  is  sure  to  come  to  those  who  follow  it 
and  among  the  first  branches  of  agriculture  will  be  found  the  com- 
mercial growing  of  vegetables. 

COMMERCIAL  GROWING  OF  ORNAMENTAL  PLANTS. 
W.  H.  TAPLIN,  CHAMBERSBURG,  PA. 

The  past  decade  has  witnessed  great  advances  in  the  production 
of  ornamental  plants  for  commercial  purposes  in  the  United  States, 
the  trade  having  in  some  instances  attained  to  the  dignity  of  being 
specialized. 

It  is  true  that  there  are  but  few  specialists  in  this  department  of 
the  trade  as  yet,  the  majority  of  plant  growing  establishments  being 
divided  into  various  sections,  rather  than  confined  to  a  single  specialty. 

However,  there  are  a  few  such  places,  and  these  are  almost  entirely 
confined  to  the  Eastern  States,  the  specialists  of  the  West  devoting 
themselves  in  most  cases  to  the  cut  flower  industry,  in  which  many  of 
them  are  remarkable  examples  of  success. 

Broadly  speaking,  our  cultural  methods  are  adaptations  of  the 
methods  long  in  vogue  in  Europe. 


50          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

By  adaptations  is  meant  that  climatic  differences  have  had  to  be 
observed  and  some  of  our  methods  adapted  to  those  differences,  as 
for  example,  the  intense  sunlight  of  our  summer  season  makes  neces- 
sary rather  more  shading  on  the  glass  than  is  required  in  some  parts 
of  Europe,  and  again  the  longer  period  of  hot  weather  in  the  central 
and  southern  portions  of  our  country  give  us  an  advantage  in  the 
rapid  growth  of  heat-loving  subjects. 

As  a  rule,  American  plant  growers  are  impatient  of  delays  in  the 
production  of  marketable  stock,  the  consequence  being  that  the  slower 
growing  plants  are  not  handled  to  any  great  extent,  such  subjects  being 
imported  from  Europe,  where  labor  is  a  little  cheaper,  and  where  time 
seems  to  be  less  of  an  object. 

As  a  result  of  these  conditions  such  plants  as  bay  trees,  box 
bushes,  Aspidistras,  Azaleas  and  various  other  plants  that  require  much 
time  and  labor  in  their  culture,  are  imported  from  Europe. 

The  palm  industry  has  made  wonderful  advances  of  late  years,  but 
up  to  the  present  time  there  have  not  been  enough  palms  of  all  sizes 
to  supply  the  demand,  this  condition  causing  the  importation  of  large 
quantities  of  these  beautiful  plants  from  Belgium  each  season. 

It  is  true  that  a  few  small  palms  have  been  occasionally  exported 
from  this  country  to  Europe,  but  these  exports  do  not  approach  the 
imports  in  value. 

The  centers  of  commercial  palm  growing  in  this  country  at  the 
present  time  are  New  York,  Philadelphia  and  Boston,  the  neighbor- 
hood of  these  three  cities  doubtless  producing  more  palms  than  all  the 
rest  of  the  country  together,  and  from  those  cities  is  shipped  the 
choicest  stock  of  this  description  that  is  offered  in  the  interior  cities 
and  towns,  even  out  to  the  Pacific  coast. 

By  far  the  larger  part  of  the  palms  that  are  annually  sold  in  the 
United  States  are  grown  here  from  seed,  the  imported  stock  being 
chiefly  in  the  larger  sizes,  such  as  are  used  for  decorating. 

The  species  thus  used  are  few,  and  but  little  change  will  be  noted 
in  the  catalogues  from  'year  to  year,  as  the  qualifications  of  a  useful 
commercial  plant  are  somewhat  exacting. 

To  fulfil  the  requirements  of  a  plant  for  this  purpose  it  must  needs 
be  a  species  that  is  readily  obtainable,  so  that  a  regular  supply  of  seeds 
may  be  had  each  season,  and  it  must  also  be  of  reasonably  quick 
growth,  of  considerable  grace  and  beauty,  and  have  foliage  of  an 
enduring  character.  Thus  we  find  that  out  of  a  possible  hundred  of 
new  species  of  palms  that  have  been  introduced  to  cultivation  in  the 
past  thirty  years,  there  are  less  than  a  dozen  to  be  found  in  the  average 
trade  lists. 

The  most  popular  palms  of  the  present  day  are  the  Howeas  (other- 
wise and  more  generally  known  as  Kentias)  the  seeds  of  which  are 
imported  by  the  million  each  season  from  a  certain  small  island  in  the 
South  Pacific  ocean. 

The  Howeas,  or  Kentias,  are  grown  best  in  a  night  temperature  of 
about  60  degrees,  and  this  may  be  considered  as  the  low  average  tem- 
perature for  palm  growing,  in  comparison  with  the  high  average  palm 


NATIONAL    COUNCIL    OF   HORTICULTURE  51 

temperature  of  68  degrees  that  is  ordinarily  given  to  Areca  lutescens. 
There  are  more  pinnate  leaved  palms  in  the  florists'  lists  than  there  are 
of  the  fan-leaved  section,  the  latter  finding  less  favor  with  the  general 
public,  about  the  only  representatives  of  the  fan-leaved  section  of 
palms  that  are  grown  in  quantity  being  a  few  species  of  Livistonas  and 
Chamaerops. 

Some  of  the  date  palms,  or  Phoenix,  are  used  for  decorating,  and 
these  are  also  used  quite  extensively  for  outdoor  planting  in  the  extreme 
South  and  Southwest.  As  already  hinted,  there  is  a  dearth  of  novelties 
of  real  value  in  the  palm  trade,  but  among  the  few  of  recent  introduc- 
tion there  is  one  Phoenix  that  is  being  taken  up  extensively,  namely  P. 
Roebelinii,  a  very  charming  dwarf  species  from  Siam,  this  palm  now 
being  procurable  in  quantity,  owing  to  a  more  liberal  supply  of  seeds 
that  has  been  received  in  this  country  during  the  past  three  years. 

Next  in  importance  to  the  palms  among  the  commercial  ornamental 
plants  are  the  ferns,  and  to  one  unfamiliar  with  the  trade,  the  numbers 
of  these  plants  that  are  annually  distributed  in  our  large  cities  would 
seem  marvelous. 

The  fern  trade  may  properly  be  divided  into  two  sections,  the  first 
comprising  those  that  are  grown  into  specimens  in  pots  of  five-inch 
size  and  upwards,  and  the  second  including  the  various  ferns  that  are 
grown  for  the  purpose  of  filling  table  ferneries  and  making  other 
decorations. 

These  latter  ferns  for  small  ferneries  are  grown  by  the  million  in 
small  pots,  2-inch  to  3-inch  being  the  sizes  most  used,  and  while  the 
wholesale  prices  are  not  high,  yet  the  crop  is  grown  in  a  reasonable  time 
and  is  fairly  remunerative. 

The  species  most  in  demand  are  various  species  of  the  Pteris  and 
Nephrodium  groups,  the  chief  essentials  for  a  plant  that  is  to  be  thus 
used  being  rapidity  of  growth,  compactness  of  habit  and  distinctness 
of  foliage. 

Among  the  ferns  that  are  grown  into  larger  sized  plants  for  house 
and  store  decorations,  we  find  a  greater  variety,  there  being  some  of 
the  Maidenhairs  or  Adiantums,  a  number  of  Nephrolepis,  some  Pterises, 
and  an  occasional  representative  of  the  tree  ferns,  among  the  most 
notable  being  Cibotium  Schiedei. 

These  ferns  are  all  grown  in  moderately  rich  earth,  but  are  given 
just  as  much  fresh  air  and  light  as  they  will  stand,  this  resulting  in  a 
sturdy  growth  of  fronds  that  will  endure  much  more  abuse  than  those 
that  are  grown  in  closely  shaded  houses  and  potted  in  light  soil. 

The  methods  of  propagation  vary  with  the  species,  some  being 
gotten  from  divisions  of  the  crowns,  others  from  runners,  and  those 
used  in  the  small  sizes  for  table  ferneries  being  raised  from  spores 
almost  exclusively. 

As  a  business  proposition,  the  fern  department  offers  some  induce- 
ments to  the  expert  grower,  but  stock  of  this  character  must  be  of  first- 
class  quality  to  ensure  a  prompt  and  profitable  sale. 

The  main  crop  of  small  ferns  for  ferneries  is  sown  during  the 
preceding  autumn,  the  time  required  from  the  sowing  of  the  spores 


52         JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

until  the  seedlings  are  large  enough  for  potting  varying  between  six 
and  nine  months,  the  practice  being  to  sow  the  spores  while  fresh,  as 
some  species  lose  their  vitality  by  long  keeping. 

The  supply  of  spores  is  usually  a  home  product,  and  requires  the 
exercise  of  judgment  in  gathering  and  preservation.  Palm  seeds  are 
almost  entirely  of  foreign  origin,  the  Howeas  being  brought  from 
Lord  Howe's  Island,  Arecas  from  Brazil,  Cocos  Weddeliana  from  the 
same  country,  Livistona  chinensis  is  sometimes  home  grown  and  is 
also  sent  from  Cuba  and  South  America,  Phoenix  is  rather  widely 
spread,  and  Livistona  rotundifolia  is  grown  in  Hawaii,  though  a  native 
further  south. 

Ficus  elastica  and  Ficus  pandurata  are  both  grown  extensively  in 
the  florists'  trade,  and  both  are  admirably  decorative  for  the  dwelling, 
besides  being  most  enduring  in  foliage. 

Dracaenas  in  several  species  and  varieties  are  also  grown  in  quan- 
tity, the  brightly  colored  varieties  being  especially  in  favor  at  Christmas 
time. 

Crotons  in  many  varieties  find  a  ready  sale  at  the  holidays,  those 
with  high-colored  leaves  in  which  red,  orange  and  yellow  predominate 
being  quite  largely  used  in  window  decorations  and  plant  baskets  at 
that  season. 

Pandanus  Veitchii  is  still  grown  extensively,  and  is  more  used  than 
any  other  member  of  its  family. 

The  Dracaenas,  Crotons  and  Pandanus  are  all  heat-loving  plants, 
and  with  a  rich  soil  and  plenty  of  sun  and  moisture  make  rapid  growth 
and  develop  rich  coloring. 

Brightly  berried  plants  are  in  demand  at  Christmas,  and  for  this 
purpose  those  most  in  favor  are  Ardisia  crenulata  (some  of  which  are 
home  grown,  and  some  imported  from  Japan),  and  one  or  two  species 
of  Solanums. 

Insects,  and  the  means  with  which  to  fight  them,  are  problems  of 
interest  to  the  commercial  plant  grower,  and  while  progress  has  been 
made  in  this  line,  yet  the  perfect  insecticide  is  still  in  the  future. 

Probably  the  most  satisfactory  thus  far  are  some  of  the  nicotine 
preparations,  the  results  from  these  having  been  better  than  the  various 
soluble  oil  preparations.  The  latter  are  more  likely  to  injure  tender 
foliage  than  the  nicotine  when  carefully  used,  but  the  disadvantage  of 
the  nicotine  preparations  is  found  in  their  high  cost. 

In  the  matter  of  fertilizers,  the  progressive  plant  grower  is  also 
frequently  experimenting,  for  soils  vary  so  greatly  that  it  takes  time 
to  find  out  the  needs  of  each. 

In  palm  growing,  the  best  commercial  fertilizer  is  one  that  contains 
a  good  proportion  of  phosphoric  acid,  but  manures  strong  in  nitrogen 
are  also  used  to  some  extent,  though  an  excessive  use  of  the  latter 
produces  brittle  stems  and  foliage. 

Among  the  other  plants  briefly  noted  in  this  paper  various  manures 
are  used,  beginning  with  stable  manure  and  running  through  bone  dust, 
dried  blood,  spent  hops,  soot,  nitrate  of  soda  and  others. 


NATIONAL    COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  53 

The  future  of  the  plant  trade  in  this  country  looks  encouraging,  for 
the  garden  is  a  youthful  institution  in  our  land  as  yet,  and  its  pleasures 
and  possibilities  are  only  beginning  to  be  realized,  and  while  the  pro- 
portion of  profit  to  investment  is  probably  less  than  in  cut  flower  grow- 
ing, yet  there  is  abundant  room  for  all  the  well-grown  plants  that  are 
likely  to  be  offered  for  some  time  to  come. 


COMMERCIAL  GROWING  OF  CUT  FLOWERS. 
F.  R.  PIERSON,  TARRYTOWN,  N.  Y. 

The  development  in  the  commercial  growing  of  cut  flowers  in  this 
country  during  the  last  thirty  years  is  phenomenal.  What  might  be 
dignified  as  the  commercial  growing  of  cut  flowers  practically  had  its 
beginning  less  than  thirty  years  ago.  Prior  to  that  time,  the  quantity 
of  flowers  produced  was  insignificant,  the  quality,  compared  with  pres- 
ent standards,  inferior,  and  the  methods  of  culture  crude  in  the  ex- 
treme. With  the  increase  of  wealth,  there  has  been  a  marvelous 
progress  in  the  production  of  cut  flowers,  both  in  the  quality  and  the 
immense  quantities  produced. 

It  seems  incredible  now  that  the  writer,  less  than  thirty  years  ago, 
was  advised  by  one  of  the  foremost  florists  of  that  time  not  to  go 
into  the  cut  flower  growing  part  of  the  business,  because  it  would  soon 
be  overdone.  This  seems  the  more  incredible  when  one  considers  that 
to-day  many  single  establishments  .are  producing  more  cut  flowers 
than  the  entire  greenhouse  production  of  the  United  States  probably 
amounted  to  at  that  time. 

New  York,  which  is  one  of  the  greatest  cut  flower  centers  in  th< 
world,  thirty  years  ago  depended  on  Boston  for  its  supply  of  roses. 
The  leading  varieties  of  roses  in  those  days  were  Safrano,  Isabella 
Sprunt,  and  Bon  Silene,  all  of  which  have  practically  disappeared,  hav- 
ing been  superseded  by  improved  sorts,  and  to-day  these  one-time  popu- 
lar roses  are  almost  unknown.  In  carnations,  at  that  time  the  leading 
variety  was  President  De  Graw.  A  long-stemmed  carnation  was  then 
unthought  of,  as  many  buds  being  allowed  to  develop  on  one  stem  as 
possible,  and  the  flowers  were  cut  with  no  stems.  Loose,  long-stemmed 
flowers  were  then  an  unknown  quantity.  These  short-stemmed  flowers 
were  supplemented  by  wooden  stems  and  wires,  and  made  up  into 
baskets,  bouquets,  etc.,  in  the  most  formal  and  artificial  arrangement — 
in  fact,  the  inferior  quality  of  the  flowers  permitted  nothing  better. 
The  best  flowers  then  produced  would  simply  be  unsalable  to-day,  on 
account  of  their  small  size  and  short  stems.  At  that  time  so  few  roses 
and  carnations  were  grown  that  they  were  necessarily  supplemented  by 
French  and  Dutch  bulbs,  which  in  those  days  were  forced  in  com- 
paratively large  quantities. 

In  the  earlier  days  of  the  cut  flower  industry,  European  methods 
of  culture  were  in  vogue.  The  few  roses  and  carnations  that  were 
grown  were  grown  mostly  in  pots,  the  greenhouses  of  those  days  being 
very  primitive.  Up  to  that  time,  the  buildings  erected  for  the  produc- 


54          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

lion  of  cut  flowers  were  very  small  and  insignificant  and  comparatively 
crude  affairs.  With  the  introduction  of  some  of  the  finer  roses,  like 
Perle,  Cornelia  Cook,  Catherine  Mermet,  Bride  and  Bridesmaid,  a  great 
impetus  was  given  the  cut  flower  industry,  and  then  came  the  queen  of 
all  roses — American  Beauty. 

I  believe  that  the  present  up-to-date  methods  of  rose  growing  had 
their  beginning  in  the  vicinity  of  Madison,  New  Jersey.  The  old  pot 
method  was  discarded,  and  roses  were  grown  on  shallow  benches  in 
light,  sunny,  airy  houses,  and  the  results  obtained  were  exceedingly 
satisfactory  and  profitable.  Large  ranges  of  rose  houses  were  con- 
stantly erected  in  that  section,  along  the  line  of  the  Delaware,  Lack- 
awanna  and  Western  Railroad,  and  at  that  time  Madison,  Summit,  and 
other  towns  in  that  vicinity  were  known  as  the  Rose  Belt  of  America ; 
but  since  then  immense  ranges  of  glass  for  the  cultivation  of  roses 
have  been  erected  in  so  many  different  localities  around  New  York, 
Chicago,  Boston,  and  other  large  cities  that  no  one  place  in  the  country 
can  boast  of  any  particular  supremacy. 

The  same  development  that  occurred  in  the  rose  took  place  in  the 
carnation,  but  at  a  considerably  later  period,  and  the  present  fine  varie- 
ties of  carnations  that  are  now  grown  have  all  been  produced  within 
the  last  decade.  First  came  Mrs.  Thomas  W.  Lawson,  which  marked 
an  epoch  in  carnation  growing.  This  variety  was  the  forerunner  of 
such  fine  varieties  as  Enchantress,  Mrs.  M.  A.  Patten,  Beacon,  White 
Perfection,  Winsor,  etc.  The  trade  was  quick  to  discern  that  while 
these  improved  carnations  could  be  grown  in  the  old-time  houses,  they 
could  be  grown  much  better  in  the  improved  houses  that  were  devoted 
to  rose  culture. 

Another  flower  which  has  become  one  of  the  most  important  is  the 
violet.  In  the  earlier  days  violets  were  grown  in  cold  frames,  covered 
with  sash  and  straw  mats ;  and,  of  course,  with  our  severe  winters,  the 
supply  was  small  and  uncertain.  The  same  improved  methods  of  cul- 
ture that  have  taken  place  with  the  rose  and  carnation  followed  with 
the  violet;  and  to-day  violets  are  grown  in  large  quantities  in  light, 
airy  houses — entirely  under  glass — a  method  of  culture  that  fifteen  or 
twenty  years  ago  was  unheard  and  unthought  of.  The  violet  business 
has  been  largely  centralized  for  many  years  in  the  Hudson  River  valley, 
especially  in  the  vicinity  of  Poughkeepsie  and  Rhinebeck,  which  has 
become  famous  as  a  violet-growing  section,  where  the  variety  called 
Marie  Louise  is  principally  grown.  Princess,  the  large  single  violet, 
which  is  not  so  difficult  to  grow,  has  been  grown  in  other  sections 
where  Marie  Louise  has  not  been  grown  successfully  or  profitably. 
Immense  quantities  of  Princess  are  grown,  especially  in  the  vicinity  of 
Boston,  and  also  in  some  of  the  large  Canadian  centers. 

One  of  the  most  phenomenal  improvements  that  have  been  made  in 
any  flower  has  been  made  in  the  chrysanthemum,  which  has  been  devel- 
oped to  such  an  extent  that  one  who  knew  it  twenty-five  or  thirty  years 
ago  would  not  recognize  the  immense  blooms  grown  to-day. 

Another  very  important  flower  for  the  florist  is  the  Easter  lily, 
which  was  grown  only  in  very  small  quantities  until  the  introduction  of 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  55 

the  Bermuda  Easter  lily  twenty-five  years  ago.  Prior  to  that  time,  lily 
bulbs  were  obtainable  only  from  Japan  and  Holland,  and  the  sources 
of  supply  were  very  uncertain,  besides  which,  the  bulbs  often  reached 
this  market  too  late  to  force  for  Easter.  Under  these  circumstances, 
the  advantages  of  the  Bermuda  Easter  lily  were  immediately  recog- 
nized, as  the  bulbs  could  be  brought  here  in  July  and  August,  so  that 
not  only  was  it  possible  to  force  them  for  Easter,  but  they  could  even 
be  brought  into  flower  by  the  holidays,  so  that  the  Bermuda  Easter  lily 
has  become  one  of  the  most  important  flowers,  especially  for  the 
Easter  season,  and  is  now  grown  in  immense  quantities. 

I  introduced  the  commercial  culture  of  the  Bermuda  Easter  lily  in 
Bermuda  about  twenty-five  years  ago,  and  for  many  years  I  believe 
that  one-third  of  the  revenue  of  the  Bermuda  Islands  was  derived  from 
the  culture  and  sale  of  this  bulb.  It  has  been  grown  there  in  immense 
quantities,  the  normal  output  for  many  years  being  two  million  bulbs 
and  up,  one  year  having  reached  as  high  as  four  million.  Unfortu- 
nately, with  bad  cultural  methods,  the  quality  of  the  bulb  has  deterior- 
ated ;  still,  the  Bermuda-grown  lily  is  an  important  factor.  But  the 
Japanese  bulbs  have  made  great  inroads  into  the  demand  for  the 
Bermuda  bulbs,  on  account  of  the  lower  price  for  which  the  former  can 
be  supplied,  and  the  fact  that  by  reason  of  more  rapid  steamers  and 
transcontinental  railroads,  it  is  possible  to  bring  the  bulbs  here  as  early 
as  September ;  so  that  the  Bermuda  lily  does  not  occupy  the  important 
position  to-day  that  it  did  fifteen  years  ago. 

Among  other  bulbous  flowers,  the  lily  of  the  valley  is  one  that  has 
held  its  supremacy.  This  always  has  been,  and  probably  always  will  be, 
in  great  demand;  while  other  bulbous  stock,  like  tulips,  narcissi,  and 
especially  hyacinths,  do  not  occupy  the  prominent  place  to-day  that 
the}'  did  in  former  years.  In  the  larger  cities,  especially  in  the  East, 
they  are  not  very  profitable.  They  are  more  largely  grown  in  the 
middle  west  and  in  interior  towns,  where  the  supply  of  roses,  carna- 
tions, and  the  other  finer  flowers  is  more  or  less  limited.  Bulbous  stock 
is  more  largely  grown  in  Europe  than  in  this  country,  because,  owing 
to  the  lack  of  sunlight  there,  roses  and  carnations  can  not  be  pro- 
duced as  easily  as  they  are  here ;  so  that  the  Europeans  are  more 
dependent  on  bulbous  stock;  but,  recently,  English  growers  have  found 
that  by  following  the  American  method  of  using  shallow  benches  and 
building  very  light  houses,  very  good  results  can  be  obtained.  This  is 
especially  so  with  carnations,  English  growers  having  learned  that  they 
can  do  much  better  with  our  improved  American  varieties  than  with 
the  varieties  that  they  have  grown  heretofore,  and  there  is  beginning  to 
be  a  large  demand  for  our  newest  and  best  sorts. 

In  the  character  of  the  greenhouses  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of 
cut  flowers  there  has  been  a  wonderful  advancement  in  the  past  twenty- 
five  years.  Twenty-five  years  ago  11-foot  houses  were  in  the  majority. 
Then  came  houses  18  to  20  feet  in  width,  and  when,  fifteen  years  ago, 
we  built  a  range  of  four  iron  houses,  each  20  feet  by  300  feet,  it  was 
considered  a  model  range,  being  much  in  advance  of  anything  that  had 
been  built  up  to  that  time;  but  during  the  last  five  years  especially, 


56          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

there  has  been  a  marked  increase  in  the  size  of  the  houses  erected, 
and  to-day  we  believe  that  the  best  house  that  can  be  built  is  one  rang- 
ing anywhere  from  50  to  60  feet  in  width.  We  are  now  building  houses 
56  feet  in  width,  running  east  and  west,  in  which  we  use  16  by  24-inch 
glass  and  reinforced  concrete  sides,  and  we  believe  that  houses  of  this 
kind  are  the  most  economical  in  construction  and  operation.  While 
houses  56  feet  in  width  are  seldom  seen  to-day,  I  do  not  believe  that 
the  limit  of  size  has  been  reached  by  any  means,  and  I  believe  that  the 
tendency  will  be  toward  still  wider  houses. 

Large  ranges  have  been  built  of  the  narrower  ridge  and  furrow 
connected  houses,  in  an  effort  to  obtain  large  areas  under  one  roof, 
but  we  do  not  consider  this  style  of  construction  as  advantageous  as  the 
large  separate,  wide  houses.  Ten  years  ago  no  one  had  any  idea  that 
such  houses  as  are  being  built  to-day  were  even  practicable.  To-day 
the  tendency  is  to  gather  under  one  roof  more  area  than  ten  years  ago 
would  have  comprised  an  entire  establishment.  The  reason  for  this  is 
the  tendency  toward  specialization  and  the  growing  of  one  or  two  varie- 
ties of  flowers  by  different  growers,  one  grower  devoting  his  attention 
to  one  variety  of  roses,  like  American  Beauty,  one  concern  alone  grow- 
ing as  many  as  a  hundred  thousand  of  this  variety.  The  same  thing 
applies  to  carnations — some  concerns  growing  between  one  and  two 
hundred  thousand  carnations  alone;  and,  of  course,  with  the  increased 
quantities  of  one  variety,  much  larger  houses  have  become  a  necessity. 

The  tendency  here  in  greenhouse  construction  is  to  increase  the 
size  of  the  house  and  the  size  of  the  glass,  and,  by  the  use  of  steel  raft- 
ers, to  eliminate  as  much  woodwork  as  possible  in  order  to  get  the 
maximum  amount  of  sunlight,  thus  enabling  the  grower  to  produce  the 
largest  number  of  flowers  during  the  short  midwinter  days  when 
flowers  bring  the  highest  prices. 

To-day  flowers  are  no  longer  considered  a  luxury,  but  rather  a 
necessity.  In  this  connection,  we  might  say  that  few  people  realize 
what  it  costs  to  produce  the  finest  flowers,  especially  during  the  short 
midwinter  days.  In  fact,  I  believe  that  in  midwinter,  when  flowers 
seem  to  bring  phenomenal  prices,  they  are  actually  produced  at  a  loss, 
when  one  takes  into  consideration  the  capital  invested,  the  fuel  con- 
sumed, and  the  labor  involved.  Even  with  the  prohibitive  prices  at  the 
holidays,  I  doubt  whether  they  give  the  grower  an  adequate  return 
for  the  capital  invested.  Even  in  California,  that  land  of  flowers  and 
sunshine,  where  Nature  is  so  kind,  it  is  necessary  to  grow  flowers  of 
good  quality  under  glass,  so  that  there,  where  one  would  naturally  ex- 
pect that  flowers  would  have  little  or  no  value,  it  costs  considerable  to 
produce  flowers  of  high  quality.  In  the  East,  during  midwinter,  when 
there  is  little  or  no  sunshine  and  when  the  amount  of  fuel  required  is 
enormous,  it  is  doubly  so. 

Looking  back  at  the  progress  that  has  been  made  during  the  last 
twenty-five  years,  and  the  improvements  that  have  been  made  even  dur- 
ing the  last  five  years,  one  wonders  what  the  next  twenty-five  years 
have  in  store  for  us.  Certainly,  .the  end  is  not  yet,  for  we  have  reason, 
to  expect  as  much  advancement  in  the  future  as  has  occurred  in  the 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  57 

last  quarter  of  a  century.  Twenty-five  years  ago,  anyone  could  have 
gone  into  the  florist  business  with  little  or  no  capital,  and  if  careful 
and  industrious,  failure  could  hardly  result ;  but  to-day,  with  the  large 
amount  of  capital  invested  in  large  establishments  and  the  consequent 
ability  to  produce  flowers  more  cheaply,  larger  capital  is  required,  and 
first-class,  up-to-date  business  methods  must  be  practiced.  A  man 
cannot  hope  to  succeed  under  the  conditions  that  exist  to-day  as  he 
would  have  been  able  to  succeed  in  the  earlier  days  of  the  business — 
in  fact,  the  florist  business,  as  it  is  conducted  now  in  the  larger  estab- 
lishments, is  fast  assuming  the  proportions  of  a  flower  factory,  and  the 
same  up-to-date  business  methods  will  have  to  be  observed  as  in  any 
other  manufacturing  business  to  ensure  success. 

In  the  future,  the  man  who  will  make  the  most  marked  success  is 
the  man  who  is  located  in  the  right  place;  that  is  to  say,  where  labor 
is  plentiful,  where  he  can  obtain  a  supply  of  coal  at  the  least  possible 
expense — preferably  near  a  large  city,  where  the  shipping  facilities  are 
quick  and  frequent — where  an  abundant  supply  of  water  is  to  be  had, 
and  where  the  soil  is  first-class.  One  of  the  most  important  considera- 
tions is  the  selection  of  a  proper  location.  Heretofore  most  greenhouse 
establishments  have  been  located  without  much  reference  to  this,  as 
they  have  been  developed  from  small  beginnings;  but  the  proper  loca- 
tion is  a  large  element  to  be  taken  into  consideration  if  one  would  be 
successful. 

I  believe  that  to-day  America  leads  the  world  in  the  production  of 
fine  cut  flowers,  and,  while  we  have  many  large  establishments  that  we 
may  well  be  proud  of,  I  believe  that  the  business  is  only  in  its  infancy, 
and  that  we  may  expect  to  see  marvelous  progress  in  the  future. 

Chairman  Taft :  We  have  had  very  practical  and  helpful  papers.  As 
you  are  all  aware,  Mr.  Pierson  is  one  of  the  largest  rose  growers  in  the 
country  and  consequently  a  very  successful  one  and  he  has  given  us 
of  his  own  knowledge  a  thoroughly  useful  talk  on  modern  methods. 
We  are  now  getting  out  from  under  the  glass  ajid  are  going  to  take  to 
the  woods,  and  our  next  paper  on  commercial  growing  of  forest  trees 
is  by  Professor  F.  W.  Rane,  of  Boston. 

FOREST  PROBLEMS. 
F.  W.  RANE,  BOSTON,  MASS. 

Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen. — Mr.  Rawson  is  responsible 
for  my  being  here.  I  have  just  returned  from  the  National  Irrigation 
and  Forestry  Congress  held  in  Sacramento,  Cal.,  and  not  having  a 
paper,  you  will  excuse  me  for  taking  the  subject  up  offhand.  I  am  sure 
I  will  not  want  for  something  to  talk  about  as  the  subject  of  forestry 
is  boundless.  Those  of  you  who  have  kept  in  touch  with  forestry,  even 
if  not  in  very  close  touch,  will  recognize,  I  am  sure,  that  at  the  present 
time  the  forest  problem  is  one  of  the  great  economic  problems  before 
the  nation.  Until  more  recently  our  forest  products  have  been  of  low 


58          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

value  and  little  appreciated;  the  time  has  come,  however,  when  things 
have  changed  and  to-day  the  forest  product  from  the  standpoint  of  an 
agricultural  crop  is  of  as  much  importance  as  almost  any  other  crop. 

As  the  President  of  this  Congress  said  in  his  address,  this  morning, 
the  main  questions  for  discussion  are:  First,  Where  are  we?  Second, 
What  are  we  doing?  and,  third,  What  are  our  prospects?  Now,  when 
we  come  to  the  subject  of  forestry,  unlike  my  predecessor's  subject  in 
its  being  old  in  the  sense  of  gradual  growth,  forestry  on  the  other 
hand  is  not.  WTe  are  just  beginning  to  realize  in  this  country  that  the 
forest  product,  as  I  have  said  before,  is  a  great  economic  problem  be- 
fore the  nation.  We  have  thousands  and  millions  of  acres  of  waste  land 
that  heretofore  were  covered  with  beautiful  forest  growth.  Particularly 
is  this  true  in  the  eastern  section  of  the  United  States.  These  lands 
to-day  are  practically  idle.  Heretofore,  it  has  not  perhaps  been  thought 
profitable  to  farm  them  from  the  tree  standpoint,  but  I  am  sure  the 
more  we  look  into  it,  the  more  we  will  see  where  the  grand  possibilities 
are. 

It  seems  to  me  the  thing  that  is  needed  as  much  as  anything  else  in 
our  farming  is  getting  down  to  some  system  and  having  a  definiteness 
of  purpose.  We  must  educate  the  farmers  of  to-day,  from  the  stand- 
point of  taking,  for  instance,  an  inventory  of  the  farm,  selecting  what 
are  the  best  lands  for  concentrated  agriculture  and  horticulture,  from 
market  gardening  to  fruit  growing  and  field  crops.  There  are  plenty 
of  lands  on  most  farms,  known  as  barren,  stony,  rocky,  sandy,  etc., 
that  will  produce  a  forest  growth  which  will  yield  a  profit  in  nothing 
else.  I  addressed  a  New  England  lumbermen's  association  last  winter. 
Strange  to  say,  in  that  large  organization  of  men  who  have  been  in 
business  for  years,  many  of  them,  in  fact  the  majority,  had  not  even 
seen  white  pine  seed.  Now,  gentlemen,  what  is  needed?  It  is  not  the 
higher  problems.  When  you  come  to  forestry,  it  is  the  simple  problems 
that  must  be  demonstrated.  People  have  to  be  taught  that  pine  trees 
grow  from  seed  and  other  equally  fundamental  forestry  principles  must 
be  shown.  It  is  the  A  B  C  of  forestry  that  is  needed  the  most. 

I  find  in  New  England  that  more  can  be  accomplished  in  the  desired 
lines  of  forestry  if  people  can  be  interested  in  the  fundamentals  first. 
Lumbermen  who  cannot  be  convinced  at  once  that  thinning  is  prac- 
tical and  who  believe  in  cutting  clear,  nevertheless  take  very  kindly  to 
restoration  by  seeding  and  transplanting.  Once  the  entering  wedge  is 
started  ultimate  results  will  follow.  The  men  who  purchase  stumpage 
should  be  encouraged  to  study  the  practicability  of  restocking  this  land 
and  before  they  will  do  this  they  must  be  induced  to  purchase  land  and 
all.  Show  them  that  in  forty  years  as  a  long  time  investment,  it  is  a 
sure  investment  and  these  business  men  are  going  to  reforest  our  lands. 
Particularly  is  this  true  in  our  eastern  section  of  the  country  where 
we  have  Nature  as  an  assistant.  Why,  if  we  were  to  move  out  from 
New  England,  bag  and  baggage,  I  believe  in  fifty  to  one  hundred  years 
we  would  have  a  wilderness.  What  does  that  demonstrate?  It  dem 
onstrates  that  we  have  a  natural  forest  country  and  the  condition  that 
we  are  in  is  due  to  the  wanton  destructiveness  of  man  himself.  Our 


NATIONAL    COUNCIL    OF   HORTICULTURE  59 

people  do  not  know  what  seeds  are.  Our  forest  seeds  drop  off  the 
trees,  quantities  of  them  that  are  practically  unused  except  in  Nature's 
way.  One  man  at  a  lumbermen's  association  recently  in  New  England, 
a  man  who  had  been  a  State  Senator  and  a  very  prominent  man  in  the 
state,  interrupted  me  when  giving  a  talk  before  the  association.  I  was 
explaining  what  we  were  endeavoring  to  teach  in  the  Agricultural 
College,  with  which  I  was  connected,  and  started  out  to  say,  that  we 
teach  the  young  men  to  collect  pine  cones,  extract  and  plant  the  seeds, 
etc.  "Now,  hold  on,  right  here,"  he  said,  "I  have  been  a  lumberman  for 
the  last  thirty-two  years,  and  during  that  time  I  have  picked  up  hun- 
dreds of  cones  in  my  meanderings  through  the  forest  and  I  have  yet  to 
find  a  pine  seed,  after  breaking  open  cones  upon  cones ;  how  can  you 
explain  that?"  To  his  great  astonishment,  I  explained  that  the  seeds 
dropped  out  before  the  cones  fell  off  the  trees  and  that  the  cones  he 
had  picked  up  probably  had  lost  their  seed  before  they  reached  the 
ground. 

Now,  I  have  letters  upon  letters  from  these  men  and  their  friends 
wanting  to  know  where  they  can  get  seeds  and  seedlings  and  this  year 
we  have  been  trying  in  Massachusetts  to  get  boys  and  other  people  to 
collect  the  tree  seeds.  Some  of  this  work  simply  leads  right  along  to 
later  results. 

The  subject  of  forestry  is  so  large  and  the  opportunity  so  great 
that  we  cannot  begin  to  deal  with  its  commercial  aspect  and  do  it 
justice  in  this  short  talk.  I  have  just  returned  from  the  Pacific  Coast. 
I  have  read  a  great  deal  of  what  the  government  is  doing  and  I  had. 
a  good  opportunity  to  look  into  it,  to  see  a  number  of  the  men  that  are 
superintendents  of  reserves  and  talk  with  them  and  see  how  they  are 
systematizing  and  carrying  out  the  work.  Now,  it  is  certainly  encour- 
aging to  see  what  our  government  is  doing  there.  I  think,  however, 
we  people  in  the  East  ought  to  awaken  to  an  equal  degree  of  interest 
in  our  forestry  interests  in  the  East.  The  same  is  true  with  the  eastern 
lumbermen  as  in  the  West  and  in  the  Northwest.  I  visited  some  very 
large  mills  in  the  State  of  Washington  that  were  interesting.  I  was 
told  they  were  shipping  into  the  States  largely  until  of  late;  this  year 
they  have  not  been  dependent  on  the  United  States  alone,  as  ships  come 
in  and  load  up  and  their  lumber  goes  to  South  America,  Africa  and 
Australia.  They  do  not  depend  upon  our  country,  but  on  the  markets 
of  the  world;  that  shows  that  our  export  trade  is  increasing  and  that 
our  lumber  tracts  from  many  sections  which  we  are  expecting  to  look 
to  in  the  future  are  getting  smaller.  It  is  a  world-wide  problem,  not 
just  a  national  one. 

Now,  the  next  question  is,  What  are  we  doing?  We  are  endeavor- 
ing to  do  a  great  deal.  I  think  the  time  is  ripe,  people  are  ready  to 
act,  but  the  main  difficulty  is  to  get  at  the  central  principle  of  how  to 
establish  fundamentals  and  build  up  the  idea  of  a  definite  forest.  The 
lumbering  end  of  forestry,  as  the  digging  of  potatoes,  is  after  the  crop 
is  planted.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  point  is  to  get  these  lands  back 
into  forests.  Let  Nature  seed  them  where  she  will,  and  let  us  assist  her 
artificially  when  it  can  be  done  in  a  practical  manner.  There  is  no 


60          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

trouble  in  collecting  seedlings  from  the  forest,  or,  better,  having  one's 
own  nursery.  The  farmer  can  afford  to  start  a  nursery  even  in  the 
garden  and  enlarge  upon  it  as  he  gains  experience.  I  visited  D.  Hill's 
large  evergreen  nurseries  at  Dundee,  111.,  and  I  saw,  with  a  great  deal 
of  interest,  their  beds  of  pine  seedlings.  Mr.  Hill  grows  upon  an  area 
four  feet  wide  and  forty  feet  long,  from  ten  to  fifteen  thousand  seed- 
lings. These  seedlings  have  been  sold  at  $4.00  to  $8.00  a  thousand  in 
New  England.  We  have  been  sending  for  the  most  part  clear  out  to 
the  prairies  of  Illinois  and  shipping  these  pines  back  to  New  England 
where  they  are  indigenous.  Every  farmer  ought  to  be  able  to  collect 
his  forest  seeds  just  the  same  as  he  would  any.  other  crop.  We  ought 
to  be  able  to  grow  pine  seedlings  for  at  least  $2.00  a  thousand  and 
it  is  just  as  easy  to  grow  them  as  almost  any  vegetable  crop  in  the 
garden. 

Lastly,  what  are  our  prospects?  I  think  our  prospects  are  bright, 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  going  to  take  lots  of  interest  from  the 
standpoint  of  men  who  have  influence,  like  the  men  that  compose  this 
Congress.  The  subject  of  forestry  is  one  of  the  great  economic  prob- 
lems, not  of  the  present  alone,  but  the  future.  In  our  mines  we  can 
take  out  all  the  gold  and  silver  and  leave  them  worthless.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  we  take  our  lands  and  carry  them  on  systematically,  we 
can  expect  a  financial  annual  income.  Look  at  Germany.  From  some 
of  her  forest  lands  she  is  getting  so  much  an  acre  annually.  Their 
method  of  management  would  keep  up  agriculture  and  would  foster 
industries. 

There  are  many  other  points  I  would  like  to  take  up,  the  subject 
of  forestry  management,  the  subject  of  the  price  of  lumber  and  why 
it  is  going  up,  for  example.  Box  boards  nine  years  ago  were  selling 
at  $9.50  per  thousand  in  Boston;  this  past  winter,  these  box  boards 
sold  at  $20.00  per  thousand.  When  I  first  went  to  New  England 
twelve  years  ago  we  were,  buying,  for  example,  Georgia  pine  from 
the  South,  shipped  into  Dover,  N.  H.,  paying  from  $16.00  to  $18.00  a 
thousand.  At  the  present  time,  it  is  selling  at  $30.00  and  upwards. 
When  I  was  a  youngster  in  southern  Michigan,  I  can  remember  that 
my  father  bought  pine  lumber  at  from  $12.00  to  $14.00  a  thousand, 
most  of  which  was  practically  free  from  knots.  To-day  Michigan 
clear  pine  lumber  is  worth  over  $100.00  a  thousand.  In  regard  to 
forest  fires,  it  is  a  question  to  be  taken  up  by  the  various  states  who 
shall  regulate  it  and  get  at  the  natural  channel  whereby  we  can  stop 
fires;  we  can  educate  the  lumbermen  and  farmers  to  make  forestry  a 
definite  system  of  agriculture.  It  seems  to  me  this  is  undoubtedly 
one  of  the  great  problems  of  to-day.  Our  National  Government  is 
doing  a  great  deal;  it  is  doing  magnificent  work  along  this  line,  but 
every  state  ought  to  be  doing  equally  strong  work  and  our  individual 
lumbermen  and  our  farmers  as  well.  I  thank  you. 

Mr.  Manning:  There  is  a  state  law  in  Massachusetts  in  regard 
to  forest  reserves  and  in  their  great  public  reserves  the  forests  are 
retained  primarily  for  their  beauty,  and  this  is  a  phase  that  ought  to  be 


NATIONAL    COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  61 

seriously  considered,  because  of  their  value  as  an  asset  in  the  com- 
munity and  in  the  state.  You  all  know  how  little  of  the  primeval 
forest  is  now  standing.  I  have  in  mind  one  instance  in  Wisconsin 
where  a  lumber  mill  was  about  to  give  up  its  operation,  it  having 
exhausted  the  territory  that  it  had  been  operating  in  for  perhaps  forty 
or  fifty  years.  Near  the  mill  was  a  very  beautiful  grove  of  old  pine, 
and  in  going  along  that  stream,  I  called  the  attention  of  one  of  the 
owners  of  the  company  and  pointed  out  to  him  the  fact  that  if  he 
could  save  certain  lines  of  trees  along  the  edges  of  the  stream,  that 
he  could  retain  all  that  beauty  and  still  make  a  very  considerable 
cutting.  Next  year  I  went  over  the  ground  again  and  that  mill  had 
been  pulled  down  and  they  had  saved  over  a  million  feet  of  lumber. 
That  shows  what  will  be  done  by  the  owner  of  a  forest  in  many 
cases  if  the  matter  is  simply  called  to  his  attention.  They  do  appre 
ciate  the  beauty  of  the  forest  and  are  glad  to  save  it.  In  a  part  of 
Massachusetts  a  grove  of  pines  was  about  to  be  cut  by  a  man  who 
operated  in  a  small  way  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  state  and  he  was 
willing  to  yield  up  his  cutting  if  the  money  be  secured  by  subscrip- 
tion to  warrant  him  in  holding  it.  It  was  the  only  remnant  of  a  very 
old  pine  grove  that  was  in  eastern  Massachusetts. 

Professor  Lazenby:  I  am  certainly  gratified  that  this  subject 
finds  a  place  in  this  Congress  of  Horticulture.  Forestry  is  perhaps 
somewhat  alien  to  strict  horticultural  work,  but  I  believe  all  horti- 
culturists should  be  interested  in  this  subject.  The  particular  phase 
in  Ohio  that  is  being  carried  on  now  with  some  degree  of  success  is 
the  planting  of  those  quick  growing  species  that  are  valuable  for  posts 
and  poles,  mainly  such  as  the  catalpa,  the  yellow  locust,  the  mulberry 
and  osage  orange.  These  are  being  planted  now  quite  generally.  I 
think  out  of  our  eighty-eight  counties  there  are  plantations  in  cer- 
tainly eight  of  the  counties  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  that  have  been 
made  within  the  last  three  years.  In  some  of  the  counties  many  plant- 
ings had  been  made  before,  but  in  one  of  the  central  counties  of  the 
state  over  one  hundred  acres  of  catalpa  were  planted  this  past  spring. 

I  should  like,  while  I  am  on  my  feet,  just  to  emphasize  if  I  could 
the  importance  of  timber  growth,  the  importance  of  looking  upon  it, 
as  Professor  Rane  says,  as  a  farm  crop.  Farm  forestry  is  the  only 
forestry  we  will  have  in  time,  but  then  somebody  has  said  that  our 
whole  civilization  rests  almost  wholly  on  wood.  I  do  not  believe 
unless  we  think  of  it  a  little  bit,  that  we  realize  how  wood  follows 
us  right  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.  When  we  are  born,  the 
first  thing  we  are  put  in  is  a  wooden  cradle  or  basket ;  as  soon  as  we 
can  sit  up,  we  sit  on  a  chair  or  bench  that  is  made  of  wood,  and  we 
continue  to  use  that  material  all  through  our  lives.  We  never  sit 
down  to  read  without  sitting  before  a  table  of  wood,  when  we  read  a 
newspaper  it  is  made  of  wood,  and  when  we  die,  without  exception  we 
are  put  in  a  box  that  is  made  of  wood.  It  is  not,  however,  for  the 
wood  alone.  I  am  glad  that  Mr.  Manning  made  the  plea  on  the 
esthetic  side,  and  I  hope  that  we  will  emphasize  that  side  of  the  ques- 
tion also.  There  is  great  beauty  in  trees.  I  never  see  a  fine  speci- 


62          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

men  of  a  tree  without  feeling  like  taking  off  my  hat  and  saying  to  it 
with  all  oriental  courtesy  and  certainly  all  oriental  sincerity,  "May 
your  shadow  never  grow  less,"  and  the  only  way  we  can  keep  the 
shadow  from  growing  less  is  to  plant  trees  and  if  ever  one  is  cut 
down  we  shoujd  see  to  it  that  another  tree  is  put  in  its  place.  The 
condition  in  Ohio  is  a  little  different  from  most  other  states,  and  yet 
it  is  no  less  a  problem  there  than  elsewhere.  We  have  no  waste 
land.  There  is  scarcely  an  acre  of  land  that  people  think  they  cannot 
use  for  any  other  purpose.  All  the  state  was  so  heavily  wooded  that 
the  trees  were  regarded  as  a  sort  of  enemy,  and  we  have  to  excuse 
this  lack  of  interest  in  forestry.  When  the  great  work  of  the  state 
in  the  past  was  to  cut  down  trees  and  get  them  out  of  the  way,  it 
was  very  hard  to  get  them  interested.  We  are  turning  a  sharp  corner, 
to  get  them  interested  in  the  growing  of  trees. 

Chairman  Taft :  We  would  like  to  have  Mr.  Goodman  tell  us 
something  about  Missouri. 

Mr.  Goodman :  Missouri  is  a  very  wooded  state  and  we  have 
had  no  occasion  to  plant.  I  wish  to  tell  you  of  an  instance  or  two 
which  occurred  where  I  had  a  hand  in  planting  down  in  southern 
Kansas  nearly  thirty  years  ago.  Robert  Douglas,  from  Waukegan, 
111.,  was  employed  to  plant  a  thousand  acres  of  catalpa  and  other  trees 
down  in  the  southern  part  of  the  state,  and  it  is  hard  to  tell  you  how 
much  money  that  thousand  acres  has  brought  in,  the  cost  of  which  at 
that  time  was  $25  per  acre  for  prairie  land.  I  cannot  tell  you  the 
amount  of  money  that  land  has  brought  in  for  the  last  twenty  years, 
and  the  property  to-day  is  worth  a  thousand  dollars  per  acre  with 
the  timber  that  is  on  it.  Mr.  Monk,  Mr.  Underwood  and  others  also 
have  large  plantations  of  catalpa  trees,  and  I  am  probably  safe  in 
saying  that  had  I  planted  catalpa  trees  instead  of  orchard  trees,  as  I 
have  planted  them  there  by  the  thousand,  I  believe  I  would  have 
made  $100  where  I  have  made  one,  and  I  have  made  some  money 
in  the  orchard  business.  Down  in  Hutchinson,  Kansas,  are  two  large 
plantations,  one  owned  by  Mr.  Yaeger,  who  tells  me  he  has  sold 
from  that  plantation  of  800  acres,  10,000  trees  a  year.  A  part  of  the 
plantation  is  now  making  its  third  growth  of  forest  trees  in  thirty 
years.  He  cuts  those  catalpas  down  and  in  one  year  a  sprout  will 
come  and  when  grown  it  will  get  eight  or  ten  and  in  some  instances 
fourteen  feet  high  and  some  of  those  have  been  cut  twice  within 
thirty  years.  They  sell  the  poles  for  telephone  posts  and  that  sort,  of 
work.  They  do  not  get  large  enough  for  the  lumber  business,  but  it 
is  still  a  money-making  proposition  in  the  western  country. 

Mr.  Augustine:  Mr.  Chairman,  I  want  to  say  that  if  Mr.  Good- 
man planted  anything  but  the  speciosa  variety  I  should  consider  his 
land  worth  less  than  it  was  before  planting.  The  great  danger  in 
planting  catalpa  for  timber  is  the  difficulty  of  getting  the  genuine 
speciosa  seed,  and  it  is  quite  difficult  to  tell  the  genuine  until  the  trees 
attain  a  considerable  size.  Therefore  great  care  should  be  taken, 
as  the  other  varieties  of  catalpa  are  worth  little  if  anything  for  timber. 
There  is  no  doubt  in  my  judgment  that  Catalpa  speciosa  is  among  the 


NATIONAL    COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  63 

most  valuable  of  all  woods  for  planting  in  the  central  part  of  the 
United  States,  if  not  the  most  valuable. 

Mr.  Jesse  Fell,  probably  the  greatest  tree  planter  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi valley,  whom  some  of  you  probably  knew,  once  gave  me  a 
beautifully  polished  piece  of  Catalpa  speciosa  wood,  telling  me  that 
it  had  been  buried  in  the  ground  at  Cairo,  111.,  for  125  years,  and 
also  told  me  of  a  foot  log  that  had  been  across  a  stream  in  southern 
Illinois  for  65  years,  and  both  of  these  were  seemingly  as  sound  when 
removed  as  ever.  Mr.  Fell  also  showed  me  how  to  distinguish  between 
speciosa  seed  and  that  of  other  varieties.  The  fuzzy  end  of  the 
speciosa  is  spread  out  the  same  width  as  the  body  of  the  seed,  while 
the  other  varieties  come  to  a  point  and  curl  up  like  "a  dude's  mus- 
tache," as  he  expressed  it.  To  convince  me  of  the  hardiness  of  the 
tree  he  took  a  seedling  tree  in  August  about  three  feet  in  height, 
with  heavy  foliage  and  unripened  wood  and  split  it  from  top  to 
bottom,  stating  that  the  cut  would  heal  over  by  fall ;  later  he  called 
my  attention  to  it  and  it  had  healed  perfectly  and  was  a  tree  with 
two  branches. 

I  think  that  this  society  could  be  very  helpful  in  assisting  seed- 
ling growers  and  planters  in  securing  the  genuine  speciosa. 

Professor  Rane :  The  great  trouble  in  taking  up  the  problem 
of  forestry  seems  to  be  especially  with  our  financiers,  because  they 
think  it  takes  so  long  to  get  any  returns.  They  seem  to  think  it  will  be 
the  next  generation  that  will  reap  the  reward  of  the  work.  Last 
winter  I  had  some  bills  before  our  General  Court  in  Massachusetts, 
and  one  of  the  men  who  appeared  before  the  committee  was  Mr. 
Augustus  Pratt,  whose  name  I  believe  has  been  mentioned  more  or 
less  in  some  of  the  publications  in  the  United  States  Forestry  Bureau 
Report.  He  said  when  he  was  a  young  man  twenty  years  of  age. 
upon  his  father's  farm  were  three  and  one-half  acres  of  land  that 
was  used  for  pasture  purposes  in  which  they  were  driving  cows  back 
and  forth  about  a  mile  from  the  barn.  He  suggested  to  his  father 
that  this  land  be  planted  to  white  pine.  He  did  the  work  himself, 
planting  the  seed  by  dropping  three  or  four  in  a  place.  These  grew 
until  seven  years  ago,  when  he  sold  the  crop  at  the  rate  of  $5.00  a 
thousand  on  the  stump  and  that  area  netted  him  at  the  rate  of  50,000 
feet  per  acre,  which  was  $250.00.  That  was  on  land  not  adapted  to 
general  agricultural  purposes,  but  land  on  which  the  brush  had  to  be 
kept  down  in  order  to  use  it  for  pasture.  He  was  a  man  seventy 
years  of  age,  and  he  said  that  if  he  had  waited  until  the  present  time 
the  same  stumpage  would  sell  at  $7.00  instead  of  $5.00,  making 
therefore  a  net  profit  from  one  yield  on  the  stump  of  $350.00  per 
acre.  Now  that  experience  can  be  duplicated  over  and  over  again  and 
more  particularly  when  seedlings  are  grown  and  are  transplanted. 

Speaking  of  the  esthetic  side  we  have  in  Massachusetts  a  Forestry 
Association  of  some  eight  hundred  members,  people  that  are  enthusi- 
astic and  delighted  to  do  almost  anything;  I  think  it  was  Mr.  Manning 
who  suggested  retaining  a  few  acres  of  large  original  standing  pines; 
the  people  were  delighted  to  buy  it  up  and  retain  it.  But,  on  the 


64          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

other  hand,  our  lumbermen  are  men  that  have  been  after  the  lumber 
end  and  it  has  been  absolutely  necessary  to  get  in  touch  with  them. 
Our  lumbermen  are  business  men  and  if  we  can  get  them  to  collect 
the  seeds  and  replant,  they  will  assist  in  the  esthetic  side  by  virtue 
of  the  fact  that  they  will  be  covering  up  these  unsightly  conditions.  I 
believe  the  time  is  coming  when  both  the  practical  and  esthetic  men 
will  get  together  and  see  that  they  are  both  working  toward  the  same 
end. 

Mr.  McNeill :  I  hope  that  you  are  not  overlooking  the  ordinary 
sugar  maple  in  this  connection.  It  is  a  tree  that  is  very  valuable  for 
its  sugar  products,  frequently  adulterated,  but  the  laws  in  the  various 
states  and  provinces  are  now  making  it  very  hard  indeed  to  deal  in 
anything  except  the  genuine  sugar.  There  are  a  very  few  trees  now 
and  they  are  of  very  high  value  per  acre  as  a  lumber  tree.  There 
is  an  unlimited  demand,  the  demand  for  maple  timber  is  increasing 
much  more  rapidly  than  the  supply,  and  I  believe  that  there  are  many 
parts  of  the  New  England  states,  certainly  parts  of  the  Provinces  of 
Quebec  and  Ontario  that  will  yield  large  returns  planted  to  sugar 
maple. 

Dr.  Galloway:  There  is  a  phase  that  has  not  been  touched  upon 
and  that  will  probably  be  of  interest  to  the  members  of  the  Congress, 
namely,  the  introduction  and  encouragement  of  growing  bamboo  in 
this  country.  The  bamboo  constitutes  the  chief  wood  supply  of  im- 
portant countries  like  Japan  and  India,  and  has  long  been  the  only 
source  of  wood  supply.  The  last  two  or  three  years  we  have  had  a 
line  out  in  that  direction  and  I  have  a  man  in  Japan  and  in  India 
making  a  special  study  in  relation  to  their  utilization  in  house  con- 
struction, bridge  material,  furniture  and  so  on,  and  we  have  secured 
the  services  of  that  man  and  are  now  importing  considerable  quanti- 
ties of  bamboo,  with  the  idea  of  putting  that  out  in  the  sections  of  the 
United  States  where  these  other  woods  do  not  thrive  so  well,  namely, 
in  some  of  the  swampy  regions  of  the  South.  Bamboo  must  be  grown 
where  it  is  quite  wet  and  we  have  been  doing  considerable  in  the  way 
of  investigations  in  that  line. 

Professor  Van  Deman:  While  I  am  a  fruit  grower  and  have  had 
a  great  ?deal  more  to  do  with  the  destruction  of  forests  than  I  have 
had  to  do  with  in  any  way  increasing  them,  because  I  have  destroyed 
110  acres  of  pine  within  the  last  three  years  in  southern  Florida  and 
put  it  out  to  citrus  fruits  and  some  other  fruits  of  a  semi-tropical 
nature,  and  in  Louisiana  I  am  now  engaged  in  deforesting  over  1,000 
acres  of  the  finest  Mississippi  bottoms,  yet  it  is  something  that  has 
always  deeply  interested  me,  and  this  thought  has  occurred  to  me 
with  regard  to  the  preservation  and  reforestation  of  the  Appalachian 
mountain  chain,  if  we  could  in  some  way  prevail  on  these  great-hearted 
millionaires,  if  we  could  get  those  men  to  open  their  hearts  and  buy 
these  vast  tracts  of  practically  worthless  farming  lands  in  the  Appa- 
lachian mountains  and  donate  to  the  government,  it  would  certainly 
be  a  wonderful  step.  I  do  not  know  that  such  a  thing  could  possibly 
be  brought  about,  but  if  we  could  get  it  to  become  fashionable  for 


NATIONAL    COUNCIL    OF   HORTICULTURE  65 

these  great  moneyed  men  to  buy  these  lands  and  donate  them  to  the 
public,  we  certainly  would  have  made  a  wonderful  step.  If  these  for- 
ests could  be  thus  preserved  for  all  time  to  come,  they  would  be  a 
pleasure  as  long  as  our  country  lasts. 

HORTICULTURAL  CONDITIONS  IN  CANADA. 
W.  T.  MACOUN,  OTTAWA,  ONT. 

The  title  "Local  Horticultural  Conditions,"  given  on  the  pro- 
gram, seems  too  restricted  to  apply  to  a  country  so  vast  as  the 
Dominion  of  Canada;  a  country  larger  than  the  United  States,  includ- 
ing Alaska,  by  nearly  200,000  square  miles.  It  might  be  thought,  how- 
ever, by  those  not  knowing  the  conditions  that  Canada  was,  for  the 
most  part,  a  land  of  frost  and  snow,  but  when  it  is  stated  that  in  the 
prairie  provinces  alone,  which  are  now  being  rapidly  populated,  there 
are  estimated  to  be  171,000,000  square  miles  suitable  for  cultivation,  of 
which  at  least  one-fourth  could  be  planted  to  wheat  annually,  produc 
ing  an  estimated  crop  of  over  800,000,000  bushels,  it  will  be  readily  seen 
that  the  future  possibilities  of  the  country  are  great.  The  United 
States  at  the  present  time  produces  less  than  700,000,000  bushels  of 
wheat  and  supplies  her  population  of  over  80,000,000  and  has  some 
for  export. 

It  may  be  asked,  What  has  all  this  to  do  with  Local  Horticultural 
Conditions?  What  we  first  desire  to  show  is  the  great  future  of  Can- 
ada, which  has  much  to  do  in  shaping  horticultural  conditions  as  the 
thousands  of  people  who  are  pouring  into  the  prairie  provinces  of 
Canada  want  fruit  and,  with  the  exception  of  tropical  fruits,  it  will  be 
grown  for  them  in  Canada. 

The  fruit  areas  of  Canada  are  large,  large  enough  to  produce 
enough  fruit  to  supply  Canada,  and  the  rest  of  the  world  for  that 
matter,  with  some  kinds  of  fruit,  and  particularly  the  apple,  for  many 
years  to  come. 

Beginning  with  the  great  province  of  Ontario,  220,000  square  miles 
in  area,  larger  than  the  States  of  New  York,  Ohio,  Illinois  and  Michi- 
gan together,  we  have  large  districts  where  apples,  pears,  peaches, 
plums,  cherries,  grapes  and  the  small  fruits  can  be  grown  to  perfec- 
tion. The  province  of  Quebec  is  considerably  larger  than  Ontario  and 
while  the  tenderer  fruits  do  not  succeed,  apples  are  being  grown  in 
increasing  quantities  yearly.  From  east  to  west  in  the  provinces  of 
Quebec  and  Ontario  there  is  a  belt  where  apples  and  other  hardy  fruits 
can  be  grown,  of  about  700  miles  in  length,  while  in  the  province  of 
Ontario  alone  the  best  winter  apples,  pears  and  plums  can  be  grown 
successfully  over  an  area  about  350  miles  long  by  from  30  to  150  miles 
in  width.  The  successful  culture  of  peaches  in  Ontarip  is  confined  to 
the  Niagara  district  and  some  points  along  Lake  Erie,  but  the  area 
suitable  for  growing  this  fruit  is  extensive  enough  to  supply  a  large 
population. 


66         JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

Nova  Scotia  has  long  been  noted  for  her  apples.  The  most 
favored  districts  are  the  Annapolis  and  Cornwallis  valleys  where  ap- 
ples, pears,  plums  and  cherries  can  be  grown  and  where  even  peaches 
can  be  successfully  raised.  These  valleys  have  a  total  length  of  about 
100  miles  and  vary  in  width  from  six  to  eleven  miles.  Fruit  culture  is 
not  confined  to  this  district  but  over  most  of  the  province  the  hardier 
fruits  can  be  grown  successfully.  New  Brunswick  has  not  yet  devel- 
oped her  fruit  industry  to  any  great  extent,  but  in  some  of  the  valleys 
apples  and  other  hardy  fruits  of  the  finest  appearance  and  best  quality 
can  be  and  are  produced. 

Prince  Edward  Island,  the  smallest  province  of  the  Dominion, 
produces  excellent  tree  fruits,  and  owing  to  the  late  season  the  apples 
grown  there  keep  better  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  Dominion. 

British  Columbia,  the  area  of  which  is  about  370,000  square  miles, 
or  more  than  twice  the  size  of  California,  has  large  sections  of  coun- 
try splendidly  adapted  to  fruit  culture.  Like  the  states  of  Oregon  and 
Washington,  with  which  her  natural  conditions  may  be  compared,  Brit- 
ish Columbia  has  a  number  of  districts  where  the  conditions  differ  from 
one  another.  Three  of.  these  are  first,  in  the  damp  coast  climate  of 
Vancouver  Island  and  the  lower  mainland ;  second,  in  the  dry  interior 
country  where  irrigation  is,  as  a  rule,  necessary,  and  third,  in  the 
Kootenays,  east  and  west,  where  irrigation  is  necessary  only  in 
places.  In  these  districts  all  the  best  fruits,  including  peaches,  can  be 
grown  to  great  advantage. 

The  prairie  provinces  of  Manitoba,  Saskatchewan  and  Alberta  and 
the  great  districts  to  the  north  produce  excellent  bush  fruits,  but  the 
tree  fruits  have  for  the  most  part  not  done  well  up  to  the  present, 
although  the  time  is  coming  when  these  provinces  will  be  producing  at 
least  apples  and  plums  of  their  own. 

These  are  the  possibilities  of  fruit  culture  in  Canada.  What  are 
the  actual  facts? 

When  the  last  census  was  taken  in  1901  the  total  number  of  fruit 
trees  in  Canada  was  21,201,239,  and  it  is  thought  that  the  number  has 
increased  by  at  least  10  per  cent  since  that  time,  making  the  total  num- 
ber now  over  23,000,000  trees,  occupying  about  410,000  acres,  with  a 
capital  value  of  nearly  $75,000,000. 

There  is  an  annual  export  of  apples  from  Canada  of  from  1,200,000 
to  1,500,000  barrels,  the  province  of  Ontario  supplying  about  1,000,000 
of  these  and  Nova  Scotia  from  300,000  to  500,000,  a  limited  quantity 
going  from  some  of  the  other  provinces.  British  Columbia,  which  is 
now  producing  increasing  quantities  of  fruits  of  many  kinds  yearly,  is 
bending  her  efforts  to  supplying  the  prairie  provinces,  and  has  been 
very  successful  in  placing  her  fruits  on  these  markets  in  good  condi- 
tion. Ontario  is  a  close  competitor  of  British  Columbia  for  this  trade 
at  present,  but  the  increase  in  population  is  so  rapid  that  it  will  take 
both  provinces  to  supply  the  demand  for  a  long  time  to  come. 

What  are  the  influences  affecting  Canadian  horticulture  to-day? 
They  may  be  discussed  but  briefly.  The  Dominion  experimental 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF  HORTICULTURE  67 

farms,  now  seven  in  number,  work  upon  which  was  begun  over  twenty 
years  ago,  have  played  an  important  part  in  developing  Canadian  horti- 
culture. There  are  the  Provincial  agricultural  colleges,  of  which 
there  are  four,  with  their  experiment  stations  which  disseminate  infor- 
mation both  through  the  students  who  are  trained,  and  by  literature. 
The  Provincial  experiment  stations  and  model  orchards  which  in  all 
are  between  fifty  and  sixty  in  number,  are  also  doing  much  to  demon- 
strate the  possibilities  of  fruit  culture  in  their  several  districts.  Seven 
Provincial  fruit  growers'  associations  lend  their  aid  in  spreading  a 
knowledge  of  the  best  methods  of  fruit  culture  and  of  uniting  the 
growers  for  purposes  of  co-operation  and  legislation.  The  horticul- 
tural literature  of  Canada,  although  represented  by  few  papers  has 
done  much  to  aid  fruit,  flower  and.  vegetable  growers. 

The  farmers'  institutes  and  orchard  meetings  organized  by  the 
Provincial  governments  and  assisted  by  the  Dominion  government  are 
very  practical  and  helpful.  The  horticultural  societies  assisted  by  the 
Provincial  governments,  of  which  there  are  about  fifty  in  the  province 
of  Ontario,  are  doing  splendid  work  in  awakening  a  greater  interest  in 
horticulture  and  in  spreading  information. 

All  these  factors  affecting  horticultural  conditions  and  progress  in 
Canada  have  been  made  to  bear  still  better  fruit  by  the  co-operative 
movement  which  has  in  recent  years  made  such  strides  in  Canada.  In 
the  province  of  Ontario  alone  there  are  forty  co-operative  associa- 
tions which  now  have  a  central  organization  where  plans  affecting  the 
welfare  of  all  the  associations  are  discussed.  These  associations  are 
doing  much  to  make  the  fruit  sold  of  a  more  uniform  character  and  to 
bring  better  returns  to  the  producer. 

One  of  the  best  influences  affecting  horticultural  conditions  in 
Canada  is  the  Fruit  Marks  Act,  passed  in  1901,  and  operative  over  the 
whole  of  Canada.  By  this  Act  growers  are  compelled  to  pack  their 
fruit  according  to  certain  standards  and  are  liable  to  fine  if  they  do  not 
do  so.  Inspectors  are  stationed  at  packing  houses,  on  the  markets  and 
at  the  ports  of  export,  who  examine  the  fruit  and  see  if  it  has  been 
packed  according  to  law.  A  marked  improvement  has  been  noticed  in 
the  Canadian  fruit  exported  since  this  law  went  into  effect.  There  are 
also  standard  apple  barrels  and  boxes  and  baskets  for  the  whole  of 
Canada,  all  of  which  make  the  packages  for  the  different  fruits  more 
uniform.  It  may  be  said  that  Canadians  are  taking  advantage  of  all 
these  influences  for  good  and  are  adopting  the  latest  and  best  methods 
in  horticultural  practice. 

The  development  of  floriculture  in  Canada  has  been  rapid.  Not- 
withstanding the  more  severe  winters  than  those  to  the  south  of  us,  the 
plant  and  cut-flower  trade  has  developed  wonderfully,  the  increase  in 
the  value  of  trade  being  400  per  cent  during  the  past  ten  years.  It  has 
been  estimated  that  the  amount  of  capital  invested  in  greenhouse 
equipment,  stock,  etc.,  is  $5,000,000,  with  an  annual  value  of  trade 
transacted  of  $2,000,000.  This  is  but  a  beginning,  as  Canadians  love 
flowers. 


68         JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS   OF   HORTICULTURE 

We  must  not  omit  the  growing  of  vegetables,  with  which  Cana- 
dians are  well  supplied.  The  truck  interests  are  growing  rapidly  as 
our  cities  increase  in  population. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  20th  century  Canada  has  about  6,000,000 
of  population  or  approximately  as  much  as  the  United  States  had  at 
the  beginning  of  the  19th  century.  It  has  been  said  that  the  19th 
century  was  for  the  United  States  but  that  the  "Twentieth  Century  is 
for  Canada."  We  believe  that  this  is  true  in  regard  to  horticulture  as 
in  other  matters. 

HORTICULTURE  IN  THE  EASTERN  STATES. 
JOHN  K.  M.  L.  FARQUHAR,  BOSTON,  MASS. 

Representing  as  I  do  at  this  Congress  the  section  of  this  country  first 
settled  by  the  white  race,  it  affords  me  the  greatest  satisfaction  to  point 
to  the  very  early  date  at  which  interest  in  horticulture  found  expres- 
sion. The  very  name  of  their  vessel,  the  Mayflower,  must  have  brought 
oftentimes  to  the  recollection  of  the  Pilgrims  during  their  long  voyage 
the  fragrant  and  beautiful  hedgerows  of  white  or  pinkish  hawthorne, 
which,  in  England,  they  had  called  mayflower,  a  namfc  which  they  soon 
bestowed  upon  the  choicest  and  sweetest  of  the  spring  flowers  of  their 
adopted  country.  Long  before  they  saw  the  mayflower  bloom,  how- 
ever, the  Pilgrims  had  raised  their  voices  in  praise  of  the  beautiful  gar- 
den products  of  the  new  world.  The  explorers  they  sent  out,  November 
16,  1620,  reported  that  they  had  found  divers  fair  Indian  baskets  filled 
with  corn,  some  whereof  was  in  ears,  fair  and  good,  of  divers  colors, 
which  seemed  to  them  a  very  goodly  sight,  having  seen  none  before, 
of  which  rarities  they  took  some  to  carry  to  their  friends  on  ship- 
board, like  as  the  Israelites'  spies  brought  from  Eschol  some  of  the 
good  fruits  of  the  land. 

In  1621  Edward  Winslow  describing  the  new  country  wrote : 
"Here  are  grapes  white  and  red  and  very  sweet  and  strong  also ;  straw- 
berries, gooseberries,  raspberries,  etc. ;  plums  of  three  sorts,  white, 
black  and  red,  being  almost  as  good  as  a  damson ;  abundance  of  roses, 
white,  red  and  damask,  single  but  very  sweet  indeed/' 

In  the  spring  of  1621,  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth  planted  20  acres 
of  corn  and  six  acres  of  bar'ey  and  peas.  The  corn  did  well,  but  the 
peas  were  not  worth  gathering,  having  been  sown  too  late  and  become 
sun  scorched  while  in  bloom.  Numerous  records  of  farm  and  garden 
crops  planted  by  the  Pilgrims  have  come  down  to  us,  and  many  evi- 
dences still  exist  in  the  locality  they  occupied  of  their  zeal  in  garden 
work.  At  first  the  colonists  of  necessity  imported  tree  fruits  and  vege- 
tables for  their  sustenance.  Within  twenty  years  of  the  landing  of  the 
Pilgrims,  'Governor  Winthrop  of  the  Massachusetts  colony  at  his  farm 
in  Charlestown,  'Governor  Endicott  of  the  Salem  colony,  Governor 
Prince  of  the  Plymouth  colony  and  Governor  Stuyvesant  of  New 
Amsterdam  had  established  nurseries,  dealt  in  fruit  trees  or  plants  and 
were  promoters  of  horticulture.  Fruits,  vegetables  and  a  large  variety 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  69 

of  herbs  were  imported  and  sold.  Flowers  were  too  great  a  luxury  for 
the  colonists  and  with  the  exception  perhaps  of  a  few  roses,  honey- 
suckle and  pink  milfoil,  were  not  grown. 

FLORICULTURE. 

Not  until  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  there  oppor- 
tunity to  give  much  attention  to  flowers.  About  that  time  the  wealthier 
citizens  of  Philadelphia,  Boston  and  New  York  began  to  cultivate 
large  gardens,  usually  arranged  in  terraces  after  the  English  style  of 
that  period,  about  their  residences.  One  of  these  estates  in  the  very 
heart  of  Boston,  was  the  residence  of  Governor  Belingham,  and  after- 
wards of  Andrew  Faneuil,  who  built  upon  it  the  first  greenhouse  in 
New  England.  On  his  decease  it  became  the  property  of  his  nephew, 
the  famous  Peter  Faneuil,  who  presented  to  the  city  of  Boston  the 
cradle  of  liberty.  So  beautiful  was  the  garden  that  it  became  known  as 
Faneuil's  Seven-Acre  Eden. 

The  revolution  stopped  further  progress  in  horticulture  until  the 
country  became  settled  under  the  new  government.  Then  began  an 
era  in  garden  work,  marked  by  a  greater  enthusiasm  than  ever  be- 
fore— enthusiasm  which  got  its  impetus  from  Washington,  as  he  sur- 
veyed grounds  at  Mount  Vernon  and  made  plans  indicating  the  location 
for  trees  and  shrubs,  many  of  which  he  collected  or  imported  from 
Europe,  and  which  upon  arrival  were  planted  by  the  same  busy  hands 
that  earlier  in  their  existence  had  cut  down  the  immortal  cherry  tree 
and  which  later  in  life  made  pruning  their  favorite  exercise — enthu- 
siasm which  drew  with  it  the  second  and  third  presidents  of  the 
United  States,  John  Adams  and  Thomas  Jefferson,  as  well  as  many 
other  notables  of  the  eighteenth  century — enthusiasm  so  perennial  and 
vigorous  that  all  predictions  of  progress  have  been  more  than  fulfilled. 

A.  J.  Downing,  in  his  excellent  work  on  landscape  gardening,  pub- 
lished about  seventy  years  ago,  said:  "In  the  United  States  it  is 
highly  improbable  that  we  shall  ever  witness  such  splendid  examples  of 
landscape  gardens  as  those  abroad,"  referring  to  Blenheim,  Chatsworth, 
Woburn  Abbey  and  Arundel  Castle.  That  which  Mr.  Downing 
deemed  improbable  has  taken  place  and  gardens  more  elaborate  and 
costly  are  being  constructed  at  the  present  time  in  the  United  States 
than  in  any  other  country.  Take  for  example,  the  beautiful  gardens  of 
James  B.  Duke  at  Somerville,  N.  J.,  which  have  been  under  construc- 
tion for  six  or  seven  years,  under  the  guidance  of  that  genius  of  land- 
scape art,  Horatio  Buckenham,  employing  1,200  persons  and  involving 
an  annual  expenditure  of  $500,000  or  more — a. garden  covering  an  area 
of  10,000  acres. 

The  pioneers  of  horticulture  of  100  years  ago  were  the  wealthier 
citizens;  there  were  really  no  professional  gardeners  then.  The  Penn- 
sylvania and  Massachusetts  Horticultural  Societies  were  organized  by 
those  interested  amateurs.  A  similar  society  was  organized  in  New 
York  in  1818  but  ceased  to  exist  in  1837. 

The  first  professional  gardener  to  come  to  this  country  was  John 


70          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

Hasketh,  who  settled  in  Hallowell,  Me.,  in  1797,  and  was  not  after- 
wards heard  of.  In  1824,  Andre  Parmentier,  from  Enghien,  Holland, 
settled  in  Brooklyn  and  established  nurseries  where  he  gave  an  example 
of  the  natural  style  of  laying  out  grounds.  As  the  first  American  land- 
scape gardener,  Mr.  Parmentier  soon  had  many  clients  from  all  parts 
of  the  country,  and  even  from  Canada,  to  whom  he  furnished  plans 
and  plants.  Mr.  Downing  considered  that  Mr.  Parmentier  had  done 
much  more  for  landscape  gardening  in  America  than  any  other  indi- 
vidual. It  is  our  turn  to  pay  the  same  compliment  to  Mr.  Downing, 
whose  masterly  works  on  landscape  gardening,  although  written  about 
seventy  years  ago,  are  still  the  standards. 

In  the  economic  line  of  horticulture  there  has  been  progress  also. 
In  New  England  we  have  now  not  only  delicacies  for  the  sick  and 
luxuries  for  the  wealthy,  as  our  ordinary  garden  vegetables  and  fruit 
were  considered  in  the  early  days,  we  go  much  further — we  have  gard- 
eners who  produce  asparagus,  cucumbers,  tomatoes,  string  beans,  mel- 
ons, etc.,  as  freely  during  December,  January  and  on  to  June  or  July, 
as  they  are  produced  in  the  open  ground  in  their  season.  One  New- 
port gardener  ships  to  his  employer  in  New  York  a  bushel  or  two  of 
melons  weekly.  Another  on  the  north  shore  of  Massachusetts  sent  in 
during  March  a  daily  supply  of  fresh  peas,  sweet  corn,  etc. 

COMMERCIAL    HORTICULTURE. 

In  commercial  floriculture  the  East  has  made  great  progress.  1 
need  only  recall  Lawson  and  Enchantress  carnations  raised  by  Peter 
Fisher  of  Boston;  the  work  of  the  Waban  Rose  Conservatories,  the 
recent  new  roses  of  M.  H.  Walsh  of  Woods  Holl,  Mass.,  which  are 
quite  as  popular  in  Europe  as  they  are  here. 

The  concentration  of  wealth  in  New  York  ensures  for  the  eastern 
florist  the  highest  price  for  choice  flowers.  It  also  affords  the  private 
gardener  the  largest  opportunity  for  the  pursuit  of  his  profession. 
Within  the  past  five  years  there  seems  to  have-  been  much  greater  inter- 
est on  the  part  of  the  wealthy  class  than  formerly,  in  horticulture  anc1 
rural  life.  This  may  be  accounted  for  partly  by  travel,  and  a  desire  to 
have  such  gardens  as  are  seen  in  Europe,  but  I  think  it  is  due  rather 
to  the  fact  that  the  automobile  has  rendered  the  country  home  more 
accessible  to  the  business  man.  The  interest  of  the  well-to-do  in  horti- 
culture is  further  manifested  by  their  support  and  activity  in  societies 
for  its  promotion,  as  the  New  York  Botanical  Society,  the  Massachu- 
setts Horticultural  Society  and  others. 

The  three  largest  eastern  cities  have  each  much  to  be  proud  of 
horticulturally.  Although  the  Bowery  is  no  longer  the  Governor's 
garden,  New  York  has  a  notable  horticultural  institution  in  Bronx, 
Philadelphia  has  her  beautiful  Fairmount  park,  sections  of  which  are 
notable  gardens  of  the  past  two  centuries.  Boston  has  always  been  at 
the  front  in  horticultural  work.  No  institution  in  the  country  has  done 
as  much  as  the  Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society.  The  names  of 
General  Dearborn,  H.  H.  Hunnewell,  Marshal  P.  Wilder,  C.  M.  Hovey 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  71 

and  F.  L.  Olmsted  are  too  well  known  for  the  great  works  they  have 
accomplished  to  necessitate  my  reviewing  them. 

But  we  have  in  Boston  to-day  one  who  is  doing  a  greater  work  for 
horticulture  than  anyone  who  has  preceded  him.  I  refer  to  Professor 
C.  S.  Sargent.  To  him  Boston  and  the  country  is  indebted  for  the 
finest  arboretum  in  the  world,  in  which  there  are  now  growing  5,000 
species  and  varieties  of  trees  and  shrubs.  He  has  traveled  over  the 
greater  part  of  the  globe  seeking  new  material  and  his  collectors  are 
now  busy  in  hitherto  unexplored  regions,  collecting  new  material  for 
shipment  to  Boston  with  which  to  enrich  American  horticulture.  Daily 
he  spends  hours  in  his  office  personally  examining  and  describing 
species  and  varieties  of  trees  and  shrubs  for  his  "Silva,"  the  greatest 
work  relating  to  horticulture  ever  undertaken  in  this  country.  The 
magnitude  of  the  work  at  the  Arnold  Arboretum  may  be  better  under- 
stood when  it  is  learned  that  350  varieties  of  Crateagus  have  been 
planted.  There  are  approximately  150  varieties  of  Syringa  vulgaris,  70 
of  Prunus,  40  of  Malus,  and  about  400  species  and  varieties  of  willows. 

Another  medium  of  horticultural  progress  is  the  Gardeners'  and 
Florists'  Club  which  has  over  500  active  members.  Meetings  are  held 
monthly  for  the  discussion  of  garden  topics  and  a  class  devoted  to  the 
study  of  landscape  gardening  meets  twice  a  week  during  the  winter 
months.  The  magnificent  private  estates  of  the  East,  including  those  of 
Bar  Harbor.  Boston  and  the  Massachusetts  coast,  Lenox,  Newport, 
Long  Island,  N.  Y.,  overlooking  the  Hudson,  along  the  New  Jersey 
coast,  and  in  the  vicinity  of  Philadelphia  demand  from  the  gardener 
the  highest  degree  of  energy  and  progress. 

HORTICULTURE  IN  THE  CENTRAL  WEST. 
L.  A.  GOODMAN,  KANSAS  CITY,  Mo. 

If  the  West  brags,  "We  can  beat  the  world,"  we  also  prove  it  by 
our  study  and  work,  by  persistence  and  energy  we  bring  about  rapid 
improvement  and  advancement.  The  horticulture  of  the  West  is  fast 
coming  to  the  front  and  the  East  is  adopting  many  of  its  improved 
methods  and  advanced  ideas.  It  is  as  though  the  westerner's  sense  of 
power  and  ability  were  an  electric  current  derived  from  the  conscious- 
ness of  walking,  living,  working  on  a  star — of  having  the  privilege  of 
living  in  a  grand  universe,  and  of  improving  at  least  a  small  portion 
of  it.  Our  spirit  is  that  of  the  pioneer  trying  new  shores,  going  on  to 
unknown  plains  and  forests;  his  love  of  exploration  and  investigation 
persists,  his  faith  in  better  things  is  never  discouraged,  but  with  these 
goes  a  balance  of  good  sense,  patience  and  work. 

We  are  pushing  the  insect  war,  studying  and  applying  sprays 
against  insects  and  diseases.  Our  scientific  men  are  practical,  not 
buried  in  the  laboratory,  our  growers  are  becoming  scientific  students. 
The  movement  for  agricultural  education  is  growing,  the  agricultural 
college  and  stations  are  spreading  their  information  and  their  influ- 
ence. The  Prairie  Farmer  of  Illinois  helped  to  educate  the  people  to 


72         JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

the  need  of  public  schools  before  1855,  when  they  were  established  by 
law  in  that  state.  Illinois  early  began  the  campaign  for  instruction  in 
natural  sciences  and  in  1872  secured  a  law  requiring  the  examination 
in  this  line  of  her  school  teachers. 

Because  of  our  distances  from  markets,  because  .of  our  extensive 
plantings,  we  have  had  to  study  the  questions  of  storage  and  distribu- 
tion. The  cold  storage  methods  are  yet  to  be  perfected  and  it  now 
seems  that  it  will  be  necessary  to  cool  the  fruit  before  it  is  put  into 
refrigerator  cars.  New  districts  are  opening  up  as  markets  for  our 
large  yields  of  fruits.  The  Northwest  will  support  a  vast  population 
that  will  need  fruit  from  the  South.  Not  one-half  of  the  land  now  in 
farms  is  improved,  not  one-fifth  of  the  land  area  of  the  United  States 
is  improved.  "The  farms  now  existing,"  says  the  Secretary  of  Agricul- 
ture, "could  be  made  to  produce  enough  to  feed  many  times  the  coun- 
try's present  population,  were  the  best  and  most  intensive  agricultural 
methods  of  European  countries  applied,  and  still  have  a  surplus  for 
export." 

Fifty  years  after  the  discovery  of  America  and  sixty-five  before 
the  landing  at  Jamestown,  the  first  white  man,  a  Spaniard,  put  his  foot 
on  Missouri  soil.  Two  hundred  and  seventy  years  later  (1812),  Mis- 
souri was  admitted  as  a  territory,  and  in  1821  as  a  state.  The  develop- 
ment of  the  central  west  has  progressed  since  then  and  is  the  result  of 
the  natural  locality,  the  physical  and  geological  conditions,  the  climate 
and  also  of  man  and  his  work.  This  latter  begin  in  1735,  and  seventy 
years  ago  reached  as  far  as  Kansas  City  in  the  person  of  Mr.  Evans, 
father  of  our  Col.  J.  C.  Evans,  of  Kansas  City,  Mo. 

From  the  influence  of  famous  eastern  pomologists,  horticultural 
societies  have  been  organized  in  most  of  our  states,  and  the  impulse 
toward  study,  experimenting  and  co-operation  thus  stimulated.  The 
exhibitions,  large  orchards,  our  advertising,  the  changed  plans  of 
orcharding,  of  pruning,  different  choice  of  varieties — all  have  con- 
tributed to  make  this  central  west  the  wonder  of  the  world,  for  its 
capability,  adaptability,  possibilities  and  financial  ability.  The  pall  of 
soil  robbery  which  has  devastated  the  fertility  of  all  our  eastern  land 
has  begun  to  settle  upon  our  central  west,  but  clover,  cowpeas,  alfalfa 
are  being  utilized  to  their  best  and  we  hope  to  see  the  great  spectre 
averted  and  our  soil  fertility  preserved.  Each  state  has  partaken  in  the 
advancement. 

From  Wisconsin,  J.  C.  Plumb  suggested  in  1877,  what  has  already 
taken  place :  the  Northwest  has  indeed  and  according  to  the  urgency  of 
the  case,  created  a  pomology  of  its  own;  new  varieties  adapted  to  its 
climate  have  been  produced  both  by  introduction  and  modification  of 
foreign  kinds,  and  by  the  origination  of  seedlings  on  its  own  soil,  by 
its  own  horticultural  citizens.  The  Wisconsin  Horticultural  Society 
maintains  four  trial  orchards,  and  so  its  good  work  goes  on,  and  not 
for  "Badgers"  only  but  for  neighbors  as  well.  The  horticulturists  of 
Minnesota  share  in  and  assist  in  the  producing  and  adapting  of  varie- 
ties ;  South  Dakota  and  other  states  are  doing  the  same.  All  are  ener- 
getic and  deeply  in  earnest.  Kansas  leads  with  a  law  requiring  of 


NATIONAL    COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  73 

census  takers,  a  collection  of  statistics  regarding  horticultural  plantings 
and  crops  in  the  state.  The  fruit  men  of  Ohio  have  for  three  genera- 
tions developed  the  horticultural  industry  there.  Longworth  and  others 
have  produced  new  varieties  and  are  encouraging  this  and  other  lines 
of  the  work. 

Twenty  years  ago  Kentucky  in  her  Horticultural  Society  meetings 
was  preaching  better  culture,  larger  attendance  at  meetings,  less  ignor- 
ant and  credulous  acceptance  of  tree-peddlers'  stories,  more  imitation  of 
Yankee  enterprise  (now  we  say  western!),  more  of  thrift  and  business 
sense,  more  attention  to  details,  and  more  love  for  the  business.  We 
have  climbed  to  a  higher  plane  but  the  sermon  is  still  good  for  us. 

Iowa  has  helped  along  wonderfully.  She  has  given  us  Budd  and 
Secretary  Wilson  and  C.  G.  Patten.  Of  the  latter,  "He  has  originated 
many  varieties  by  cross-breeding,"  says  M.  J.  Wragg,  "that  are  perfectly 
adapted  to  any  good  orchard  soil  in  Iowa  or  south  Minnesota."  Mr. 
Patten  is  honored  in  the  presidency  of  the  Northeast  Iowa  Horticul- 
tural Society,  and  he  rejoices,  that  "under  the  most  trying  climatic 
conditions  we  find  the  most  heroic  efforts.  Many  things  that  were 
problematical  a  few  years  ago  have  now  become  fixed  facts  and  beyond 
the  experimental  stage." 

Colorado's  fruits  are  sought  by  many,  and  fancy  prices  are  the 
consequence.  They  are.  "self-sellers."  Specimen  boxes  of  apples,  sen! 
to  Germany  and  Great  Britain  created  an  instant  demand.  Colorado  is 
among  the  leaders  in  effective  horticultural  inspection  laws.  The  larg- 
est size  fruits  are  not  desirable  in  Germany  because  they  are  sold  by 
the  pound  and  the  people  there  (with  eight  or  more  in  family),  want 
more  than  two  or  three  apples  to  the  pound.  This  mountain  state  is 
trying  the  dwarfing  of  peach  trees,  so  that  they  can  be  protected  in 
winter.  Dry-farming,  it  is  believed,  will  bring  to  the  semi-arid  plains 
homes,  orchards  and  fields.  Already  she  ships  to  twenty-two  different 
states,  besides  Canada  and  Mexico.  President  Coburn  of  the  Horticul- 
tural Society,  says  to  the  young  men,  "plant  orchards,  our  apples  are 
the  most  perfect  and  longest  keepers  produced  in  America." 

Oklahoma  is  not  afraid  of  radical  propositions  in  the  way  of 
better  rural  education — provided  that  the  means  are  immediately  effec- 
tive of  improvement.  Oklahoma's  first  report  is  a  model  of  system, 
having  its  subjects  grouped  in  sections,  as:  The  Board  of  Agriculture, 
Gardening  and  Truck  Farming,  Fruit  Growing,  Field  Crops,  Dairying, 
etc.,  etc.  Her  peaches  are  already  known  in  London. 

Illinois  has  besides  its  State  Society,  three  sectional  ones,  for  the 
north,  south  and  central  portions,  and  fifteen  experimental  stations, 
each  specializing  under  its  own  superintendent. 

Michigan  was  the  first  state  to  have  an  agricultural  college.  It 
was  established  in  1857,  though  the  Morrill  bill  was  not  signed  by 
President  Lincoln  until  1862. 

The  advancement  along  horticultural  lines  has  been  truly  mar- 
velous. Some  of  us  can  well  remember  when  the  shipment  of  fruits 
from  our  central  west  began.  First  in  a  small  way,  but  now  trains 
of  cars  carry  the  products  of  our  orchards  to  every  section  of  the 


74         JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS   OF   HORTICULTURE 

country.  We  find  ourselves  dazed  at  the  tremendous  bulk  of  this 
business.  Orchards  small  and  commercial  are  constantly  multiplying. 
Fruit  growers  are  organizing  to  co-operate  in  the  business  of  selling. 
Gathering  and  packing  must  be  scientifically  as  also  artistically  done. 
All  divisions  of  the  industry  demand  system,  conservatism,  knowledge 
and  experience — and  still  the  plantings,  the  crops  increase — so  that 
even  now  the  railroad  and  refrigerator  car  companies  are  pushed  to 
extremities  to  supply  the  cars  to  carry  to  market  the  immense  quan- 
tities of  fruit  products. 

"What  a  field  of  research  and  promise  is  open  before  us !"  said 
Marshal  P.  Wilder.  "What  a  vast  enterprise  to  fill  our  ever-expanding 
area  with  fruits  suited  to  our  various  climes !  What  a  noble  and 
benevolent  work,  to  furnish  the  luscious  fruits  of  earth  for  future 
generations  !"  If  after  thirty  years  of  organization  President  Wilder 
could  express  wonder  at  the  great  advances  made,  at  the  opportunities 
and  resources  before  us,  how  much  more  can  we,  and  the  end  not  yet 
in  sight.  Our  work  is  of  great  magnitude,  embracing  an  entire  con- 
tinent, opening  up  to  us  new  resources  and  demands,  and  calling  for 
constant  and  untiring  energy  and  enterprise. 

"We  have  made  great  advances  during  the  thirty-one  years  of  our 
history,  and  experience  from  the  best  sources  is  flowing  in  to  us  every 
day.  The  spirit  of  investigation  is  now  thoroughly  alive,  and  we  have 
opportunities  for  improvement  such  as  have  never  been  afforded  to 
any  other  Pomological  Association  on  the  globe.  Our  resources  are 
abundant  and  so  kindly  does  Nature  co-operate  with  us  under  the  be- 
nign influence  of  man,  that  he  can  mould  her  almost  to  his  will,  and 
make  of  the  rough  and  acrid  wilding  a  most  beautiful  and  delicious 
fruit,  and  thus  go  on  producing  indefinitely  as  fine  varieties  as  we 
have  ever  seen.  When  we  review  what  has  already  been  accomplished 
in  a  country  so  varied  in  soil  and  climate,  who  'can  set  the  bounds  to 
our  progress?" 

LESSON    FROM     THE    CANALS     OF     MARS. 

Thirty  years  ago  an  Italian  astronomer  noticed  what  appeared  to 
be  canals  on  Mars.  This  discovery  has  been  verified  by  an  American, 
Percival  Lowell.  The  lesson  to  us  is  unity.  The  canal  system  covers 
the  planet  reaching  from  each  polar  sea  to  the  equator.  They  are 
constructed  on  geometrical  lines  by  skilled  engineering.  Without  them 
Mars  would  be  an  arid  desert,  and  all  life  would  perish,  but  as  it  is, 
each  spring  sends  the  water  to  irrigate  the  whole  planet  and  great 
circles  and  bands  of  vegetation  come  to  life.  What  a  centralization 
of  effort  is  revealed  here !  What  a  unity  of  interest  binding  that  globe ! 

There  is  evidence  of  thorough  and  sympathetic  organization  of  all 
the  people  in  labor  and  love  for  a  work  that  covers  the  entire  planet. 
Here  is  an  ideal  for  us  (for  them  achieved)  to  strive  towards  and  be- 
lieve in.  Our  efforts  should  be  (and  are  becoming  more  and  more) 
united  in  study,  in  labor,  and  in  recognition  of  the  human  brotherhood 
on  this  planet,  earth,  of  the  common  needs  and  aims  of  men.  We 
must  join  forces,  every  state  with  every  state,  every  nation  with  every 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  75 

other,  every  one  of  us  with  every  neighbor,  the  near  at  hand  and  the 
distant  ones,  all  for  the  subdual  of  this  star-world,  that  the  best  of  life 
here  may  be  shared  by  each.  There  are  many  of  us  on  this  speck  of 
a  world,  but  there  are  many  yet  lacking  their  fair  share  of  its  products, 
its  beauty,  its  joy.  President  Ayles worth  of  the  Colorado  Agricultural 
College  has  said,  "Let  us  work  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  our  faces 
set  toward  a  high  ideal  and  don't  let  anything  make  us  miss  our  goal." 

OUTLINE  OF  SOUTHERN   HORTICULTURAL  CONDITIONS. 

F.  H.  BURNETTE,  BATON  ROUGE,  LA. 

In  the  time  given  for  this  topic,  it  will  be  possible  to  touch  only 
a  few  points.  Speaking  from  the  standpoint  of  the  middle  gulf 
section,  there  is  present  to-day  a  feeling  of  serious  unrest  in  agricultural 
affairs,  due  to  the  onward  march  of  the  cotton  boll  weevil.  This  insect 
no  doubt  will  eventually  infest  the  entire  field  of  cotton  growing,  and 
cause  a  complete  change  in  the  agricultural  practices  of  the  whole  sec- 
tion. In  this  general  shake-up,  horticultural  pursuits  will  receive  their 
share  of  attention.  Already  floods  of  inquiries  are  coming  to  the  ex- 
periment stations,  seeking  the  best  information  concerning  many  lines 
of  agricultural  endeavor  outside  of  the  growing  of  cotton.  The  grow- 
ing of  vegetables,  fruits  and  nuts  has  received  marked  attention.  The 
lack  of  canneries  and  evaporators  precludes  the  growing  of  the  com- 
mon horticultural  products,  except  for  local  city  use,  or  long-distance 
trucking  along  the  trunk  lines  of  railways — hence  there  are  many 
things  to  come  before  this  can  be  changed.  Along  the  trunk  lines 
are  large  truck  sections,  where  immense  quantities  of  vegetables,  ber- 
ries, and  fruits  are  grown  and  sent  to  the  far  North.  These  sections 
are  prosperous,  and  while  the  growers  have  difficulties  to  overcome, 
the  boll  weevil  and  the  cotton  gambler  are  not  to  be  found  among 
them.  These  horticultural  sections  are  increasing  in  size,  and  with  the 
advent  of  new  railway  lines  will  become  great  factors  in  the  material 
welfare  of  the  South.  In  Louisiana,  the  truck  sections  approximate 
three  millions  of  dollars  in  value  of  products.  These  products  include 
the  vegetables,  berries  and  oranges.  The  growers  are  now  being  organ- 
ized, and  they  produce  and  market  their  crops  in  a  systematic  manner, 
which  insures  the  best  returns. 

The  greatest  disadvantage  to  be  found  is  connected  with  the  labor 
question,  which  while  it  differs  slightly  in  color  from  the  labor  ques- 
tion in  other  sections  is  just  as  difficult  to  overcome.  The  leaders  in 
our  horticultural  affairs  are  taking  advantage  of  everything  that  is 
up-to-date  in  the  cultivation  of  their  crops.  Improved  implements  are 
used,  intense  systems  of  cultivation  are  employed  and  the  use  of  the 
spray  pump  has  become  familiar  to  them. 

The  newest  departure  in  horticultural  affairs  is  the  interest  that 
is  being  developed  in  the  pecan  industry.  People  generally  throughout 
the  gulf  section  are  beginning  to  realize  the  possibilities  connected  with 
the  growing  of  pecans  commercially.  Pecan  orchards  are  being  set 


76          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

with  the  finest  varieties,  and  there  seems  every  reason  to  believe  that 
the  South,  unrivaled  as  it  is  in  the  production  of  this,  the  finest  nut  in 
the  world,  will  reap  great  material  benefit  from  the  industry.  Orchards 
of  several  hundred  acres  are  now  being  planted  to  varieties  that  seldom 
find  their  way  to  the  market  to-day.  The  United  States  spends  several 
millions  of  dollars  annually  for  nuts  which  are  inferior  to  the  pecan 
in  food  value;  surely  there  is  great  encouragement  for  this  branch  of 
horticultural  effort. 

The  time  is  ripe  for  other  efforts  along  horticultural  lines.  Untold 
quantities  of  various  canned  products  are  consumed  in  the  South,  that 
could  be  grown  and  put  up  in  the  South.  The  character  of  the  labor 
to-day  prevents  this,  but  the  time  will  come  when  the  South  will  pro- 
duce her  share  of  canned  goods.  From  a  general  survey  of  southern 
conditions,  surely  the  future  is  full  of  promise  to  the  careful  southern 
horticulturist. 

Chairman  Taft:  We  have  with  us  a  gentleman  from  Alabama, 
and  I  want  to  ask  him  to  tell  us  something  about  the  fruit  and  horti- 
cultural conditions  in  Alabama.  I  want  to  call  upon  Professor 
Mackintosh,  of  Auburn,  Alabama. 

Professor  Mackintosh :  I  have  not  put  my  thoughts  on  paper  and 
so  I  cannot  do  justice  to  the  subject.  We  have  big  problems  to  look 
after  and  we  need  more  light.  The  growing  of  the  cotton,  as  one  crop 
system,  prevails  to  too  large  a  degree,  but  the  coming  of  the  boll  weevil 
is  one  thing  that  is  going  to  change  that,  and  getting  rid  of  the  cattle 
tick,  that  was  spoken  of  this  morning,  and  I  look  forward  to  many 
things  to  take  place  that  will  make  the  South  very  much  better  and 
to  grow  better  fruits  than  it  has  grown  heretofore. 


OUR  NATIONAL  FORESTS. 
WM.  L.  HALL,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

Massed  together  and  laid  over  Eastern  United  States,  the  national 
forests  would  cover  New  England,  as  far  southward  as  the  south  line 
of  Virginia  and  westward  including  Pennsylvania  and  most  of  West 
Virginia.  They  are  not  massed  together,  nor  do  they  lie  in  Eastern 
United  States.  They  are  separated  into  156  unit  areas,  and  they  lie 
entirely  west  of  the  Mississippi  River.  For  the  most  part  they  are 
west  of  the  east  line  of  Colorado.  Not  considering  Alaska  or  the 
insular  possessions,  their  extent  is  146  million  acres,  or  7  2-3  per  cent, 
of  the  total  land  area. 

PURPOSE    AND   USE   OF    NATIONAL    FORESTS. 

The  national  forests  are  all  portions  of  the  national  domain  which 
have  been  set  aside  permanently  for  forest  production.  Two  great 
purposes  are  fulfilled  through  a  forest  so  set  apart.  It  may  be  chiefly 
valuable  for  the  production  of  wood,  or  for  the  protection  of  the  water 
supply.  The  law  underlying  the  establishment  of  national  forests 


NATIONAL    COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  77 

recognizes  both  purposes,  and  it  would  be  hard  to  say  in  the  case  of  the 
present  national  forests  which  purpose  is  of  the  greater  importance. 

A  national  forest,  while  setting  apart  the  land  for  forest  produc- 
tion, does  not  withdraw  it  from  other  uses,  so  far  as  it  is  adapted  to 
them.  The  great  industries  of  agriculture,  mining,  grazing,  and  lumber- 
ing are  not  excluded,  but  may  go  on  to  such  an  extent  as  will  not 
interfere  with  the  main  purpose  for  which  the  forest  is  set  apart. 

A  glance  at  the  map  of  the  western  states  shows  how  irregular  in 
most  cases  the  boundaries  of  the  national  forests  have  been  made  in 
order  to  include  only  lands  of  greater  importance  for  forest  than  for 
other  purposes.  The  boundaries  are  made  irregular  to  include  the 
mountain  ranges  and  to  exclude  agricultural  lands  which  lie  in  the 
mountain  parks  or  in  valleys  along  the  streams.  But  however  carefully 
the  boundaries  are  located,  large  tracts  of  a  million  acres  or  more, 
such  as  many  of  the  national  forests,  can  not  be  made  entirely  to 
exclude  agricultural  lands.  Recognizing  this  fact,  the  law  now  requires 
that  the  agricultural  lands  within  forest  reserves  shall  be  thrown  open 
for  homestead  entry.  As  rapidly  as  possible  the  national  forests  are 
being  examined,  and  lands  suitable  for  agriculture  are  being  opened 
for  settlement. 

Mining  is  not  inimical  to  forest  production,  and  hence  goes  on  in 
the  national  forests  unrestricted.  A  vigilant  outlook  is  maintained, 
however,  to  prevent  the  taking  of  valuable  timber  lands  through  mining 
laws  where  no  evidence  of  minerals  exists. 

The  mountain  ranges  of  the  West,  which  constitute  the  national 
forests,  contain  large  areas  of  grazing  lands.  For  many  years  these 
lands  have  been  the  range  of  millions  of  live  stock.  Their  exclusion 
would  mean  great  and  unnecessary  loss  to  the  live-stock  industry  of 
the  West.  On  much  of  the  forest  land  grazing  can  go  on,  and  does 
go  on,  to  an  extent  not  dangerous  to  the  reproduction  and  growth  of 
the  forest.  During  the  season  of  1906,  1,105,148  cattle  and  horses,  and 
5,763,100  sheep  were  grazed  in  the  national  forests,  and  the  income 
from  grazing  for  the  season  was  $550,000.  Under  management,  the 
range  is  rapidly  improving.  Its  carrying  capacity  may  be  expected  to 
increase  constantly  for  several  years. 

Lumbering  also  goes  on  in  the  forests  belonging  to  the  govern- 
ment. As  one  of  the  prime  objects  of  the  national  forests  is  to  pro- 
duce wood,  it  follows  that  this  timber,  when  mature,  must  be  cut  and 
used.  There  is  a  large  amount  of  mature  timber  in  the  western  for- 
ests, and  it  is  being  cut  wherever  there  is  a  demand  for  it.  It  is  not 
cut  by  the  government ;  it  is  sold  on  the  stump  to  lumbermen,  who 
cut  the  trees  under  the  supervision  of  the  Forest  Service.  During  1906, 
the  income  from  lumbering  was  $386,000. 

In  addition,  the  forests  are  being  used  in  many  other  ways — for 
the  development  of  water  powers,  for  the  location  of  hotels,  stores, 
summer  resorts,  and  for  various  rights  of  way.  For  some  of  these 
purposes  a  fee  is  charged. 

Altogether,  over  a  million  dollars  was  received  as  returns  from 
the  forests  in  1906,  which  shows  considerable  use  on  the  part  of  the 


78          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

people.  The  use  should  and  will  greatly  increase.  For  1907  the  income 
from  grazing  was  $875,000,  as  against  $550,000  in  1906.  The  total 
income  for  1907  will  probably  be  50  per  cent  greater  than  for  1906. 

Not  only  are  these  wild  lands  being  used — they  are  being  devel- 
oped. The  use  which  is  being  made  of  them  by  the  public  results  in 
development.  Railroads,  wagon  roads,  trails,  canals,  flumes,  power 
and  telephone  lines,  reservoirs  and  bridges  are  being  built,  many  of 
them  at  private  expense.  In  addition,  the  government  itself  is  con- 
structing many  permanent  improvements.  During  the  present  season 
it  will  construct  2,200  miles  of  telephone  line,  2,500  miles  of  trail,  100 
bridges,  500  rangers'  cabins,  200  miles  of  roadway,  and  500  miles  of 
fence. 

The  result  will  be  to  open  up  the  forests  for  greater  use.  New 
forest  and  grazing  areas  will  be  made  accessible  and  better  arrange- 
ments made  for  handling  the  business.  The  forest-system  of  the 
government  will  undoubtedly  be  self-sustaining  within  a  few  years. 

INFLUENCE    OF    NATIONAL    FORESTS    ON    THE    WESTERN    TIMBER    SUPPLY    AND 
ON  THE  PROTECTION   OF  WESTERN   STREAMS. 

There  are  estimated  to  be  upwards  of  350  billion  feet  of  timber 
in  the  national  forests,  an  amount  large  enough  to  supply  the  United 
States  for  all  purposes  about  three  and  one-half  years  (for  our  annual 
use  is  about  100  billion  feet).  Considering  the  country  west  of  the 
Mississippi  River,  where  are  found  only  25  per  cent  of  our  people,  the 
national  forests  would  supply  wood  for  its  uses  for  fourteen  years. 
But  the  main  part  of  the  trans-Mississippi  timber  supply,  namely,  about 
750  billion  feet,  is  in  private  hands.  This  total  supply  of  1,100  billion 
feet  should  be  sufficient  for  the  population  west  of  the  Mississippi  at 
the  present  rate  of  use,  for  over  forty  years.  With  this  large  present 
supply  and  the  great  area  which  the  Government  from  this  time  on 
will  have  under  protection  and  management,  it  is  safe  to  conclude  that 
the  timber  supply  for  the  western  part  of  the  country  is  on  a  fairly 
good  basis. 

Considering  stream  protection,  we  may  note  that  every  important 
western  stream  which  rises  in  the  high  mountains  has  its  headwaters 
protected  by  national  forests.  There  will  be  no  further  denudation  of 
these  important  watersheds.  The  timber,  while  of  course  it  will  be 
cut,  will  be  cut  conservatively,  without  impairing  in  any  degree  the 
protective  value  of  the  forest  cover.  Protection  from  fire  will  result 
in  the  reproduction  of  the  forest  in  some  localities  where  it  has  been 
swept  away.  Important  watersheds  where  natural  reproduction  is  hope- 
less will  be  planted.  The  western  water  supply,  like  the  western  timber 
supply,  is  in  good  condition,  and  will  be  constantly  improved  for  many 
years,  because  of  the  protective  influence  of  the  national  forests. 

SHOULD  THE  NATIONAL  FORESTS  BE  EXTENDED  TO  THE  EASTERN  STATES  ? 

The  states  east  of  the  Mississippi  originally  were  almost  entirely 
wooded  with  the  finest  commercial  timbers — white  pine  in  the  North, 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  79 

hardwoods  in  the  central  states,  and  yellow  pine  in  the  South.  It  needs 
not  to  be  repeated  how  these  forests  have  been  cut  and  destroyed.  These 
states  are  estimated  to  contain  now  only  about  900  billion  feet  of 
lumber,  which,  according  to  our  present  rate  of  use,  means  only  twelve 
to  fifteen  years'  supply. 

The  Federal  Government  has  no  forests  anywhere  east  of  the 
Mississippi.  The  states  have  reserved  about  two  and  one-half  million 
acres.  All  the  rest  is  under  private  ownership,  which  system  has  re- 
sulted in  the  reduction  of  the  commercial  forest  from  the  original  to 
the  present  condition.  Private  ownership  shows  little  evidence  of 
changing  from  the  original  methods  of  exploitation.  Lumbering  still 
means  the  exhaustion  of  the  forest.  Over  most  of  the  region  fires  still 
burn  without  hindrance.  The  forest  is  being  used  faster  than  ever 
before.  The  increase  in  the  use  of  wood  equals  if  indeed  it  does  not 
exceed  the  increase  in  population.  As  an  index  of  the  changed  situa- 
tion in  the  timber  supply  in  the  eastern  states  in  ten  years,  one  has 
but  to  note  that  the  prices  of  our  leading  woods  have  advanced  from 
25  to  75  per  cent. 

From  whatever  side  the  timber  situation  in  the  eastern  states  is 
viewed,  one  is  forced  irresistibly  to  the  conclusion  that  remedial  meas- 
ures must  be  taken,  and  that  quickly,  or  we  shall  be  in  the  midst  of  a 
timber  famine. 

The  only  remedy  yet  proposed  which  meets  the  situation  is  for  the 
Federal  Government  to  undertake  the  establishment  of  national  forests 
in  the  eastern  states  similar  in  purpose  to  those  in  the  West.  There 
is  but  one  region  in  the  East  where  such  a  system  could  properly  be 
established — the  Appalachian  Mountains.  This  is  the  only  region  in 
the  East  more  valuable  for  timber  than  for  other  crops  and  at  the 
same  time  the  source  of  important  interstate  streams. 

EASTERN    NATIONAL    FORESTS    WOULD    HELP   TIMBER    SUPPLY. 

The  importance  of  national  forests  to  help  the  eastern  timber  sup- 
ply, especially  the  hardwood  supply,  needs  strong  emphasis.  Although 
the  Appalachians  bear  pine,  spruce  and  hemlock,  they  are  essentially  a 
hardwood  region.  They  probably  contain  more  than  half  the  nation's 
available  supply  of  hardwoods,  and  in  1906  they  furnished  46  per  cent 
of  the  country's  hardwood  lumber.  The  Appalachians  are  the  only 
hardwood  region  we  shall  have  in  the  future.  In  other  regions  hard- 
woods stand  upon  agricultural  soil,  where  the  forest  must  rapidly 
give  way  to  farming.  The  Appalachians  are  fundamentally  a  forest 
region.  They  are  profitable  for  no  other  use.  Farming  fails,  fruit- 
growing fails,  and  likewise  grazing,  because  in  the  principal  moun- 
tains a  cover  of  grass  is  insufficient  to  hold  the  soil  in  place. 

Through  poor  methods  of  cutting  and  lack  of  protection,  the  en- 
tire region  is  producing  but  little  wood  compared  with  what  it  might 
produce.  The  great  value  of  the  government  forests,  so  far  as  timber 
is  concerned,  would  be  that  they  would  allow  the  mountains  to  produce 
the  timber  which  they  are  capable  of  producing  and  of  which  the  coun- 


80          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

try  from  this  time  on  will  stand  in  greatest  need.  There  is  no  question 
but  that  with  right  management  the  Appalachian  Mountains  would 
produce  permanently  75  per  cent  of  the  hardwood  timber  required  in 
the  United  States. 

The  need  of  Appalachian  forest  reserves  from  the  standpoint  of 
hardwood  timber  supply  is  a  great  national  need,  affecting  directly  all 
the  people  of  the  United  States. 

IMPORTANT     FOR     STREAM     PROTECTION. 

The  number  of  important   rivers  which   rise  in  the  Appalachians 

far  exceeds  those  which  have  their  source  in  the  western  mountains, 
and  they  directly  affect  the  welfare  of  a  vastly  greater  number  of  peo- 
ple. As  the  forests  have  been  cleared  from  the  mountains  everywhere 
in  the  Appalachians,  the  extremes  of  high  and  low  water  have  been 
increased,  water  powers  have  decreased  in  efficiency,  mountain  slopes 
have  been  eroded,  and  the  sediment  has  tilled  the  streams  and  harbors 
below,  navigation  has  been  retarded,  and  property  along  the  streams 
has  suffered  damage  from  the  increased  Hoods.  It  is  difficult  to  realize 
the  damage  which  is  possible  in  these  directions.  The  United  States 
Weather  Uureau  made  a  ran- ful  estimate  of  the  damage  along  the  Ohio 
River  in  the  tloods  of  January  and  March  of  this  year,  and  found  that 
the  properly  loss,  not  including  damage  to  soil  and  river  channel, 
amounted  to  $<),«.)()(),()()().  To  this  must  be  added  also  the  loss  of  time, 
which  in  itself  would  amount  to  millions,  and  the  depreciation  of 
rentals,  which  in  J'ittsburg  alone  has  amounted  to  a  huge  sum.  Taken 
together,  this  represents  but  the  loss  during  three  months  in  two  tribu- 
taries of  the  Ohio  River.  It  is  but  little  compared  with  the  losses  we 
must  expect  over  the  whole  region  if  the  mountains  are  not  kept  under 
forest. 

Correspondingly  great  will  be  the  gain  to  our  industries  if  the 
nation  does  hold  these  mountains  for  purposes  for  which  Nature  in- 
tended them. 

A    NUMBER    OF    APPALACHIAN    FORESTS    NECESSARY. 

How  extensive  and  where  the  Appalachian  forests  will  have  to  be, 
no  one  knows  at  present.  Acting  under  instructions  from  Congress, 
the  Forest  Service  is  now  preparing  a  report  in  which  these  points 
will  be  covered.  This  report  will  be  submitted  at  the  next  session  of 
Congress. 

To  protect  the  important  watersheds  there  must  be,  not  one  great 
area  in  some  particular  part  of  the  mountains,  leaving  other  sections 
unprotected,  but  a  number  of  areas,  each  large  enough  and  properly 
located  to  protect  one  or  more  important  streams.  Such  reserves 
would  have  to  be  irregular  in  outline,  and  would  frequently  be  discon- 
nected. While  serving  for  the  protection  of  streams  they  would  also 
improve  the  timber  supply.  The  fact  that  they  may  be  scattered  would 
also  be  of  advantage  in  that  the  timber  could  more  readily  be  distrib- 
uted from  them. 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  81 

This  assumes  that  the  timber  from  these  reserves  will  be  cut  as 
it  reaches  maturity.  It  is  needed  and  must  be  used.  But  we  may  re- 
member this,  that  the  mature  timber  can  be  cut  and  the  forest  be  in 
no  wise  injured  in  its  protective,  scenic,  or  sanitary  value.  This  is  the 
advantage  of  forestry  over  lumbering. 

OBJECTIONS. 

As  with  all  national  movements,  objections  have  been  raised  against 
government  forests  in  the  Appalachians.  Fortunately,  these  objections 
can  be  met.  Some  of  them  are  as  follows : 

1.  The  government  would  have  to  buy  the  land. 

This  is  true.  The  title  to  the  land  has  passed  to  private  hands. 
Unlike  the  case  of  the  western  national  forests,  the  government  would 
have  to  buy  and  pay  for  the  land  before  it  can  take  it  under  control. 
But  the  money  would  not  be  lost.  It  would  begin  to  come  back  in  a 
few  years,  just  as  the  money  comes  back  which  the  government  invests 
in  the  irrigation  of  western  lands.  Timber  land  is  so  sure  an  invest- 
ment, that  the  government  stands  to  gain  rather  than  lose  in  the  un- 
dertaking. Had  it  purchased  these  lands  eight  years  ago,  when  the 
matter  was  first  pressed,  its  profits  already  would  have  amounted  to 
millions. 

2.  Such    an   undertaking   would    lead   to    endless    expenditure   on 
account  of  the  vast  areas  to  be  purchased. 

The  Forest  Service  is  covering  this  point  in  its  present  investiga- 
tion and  will  report  to  Congress  next  winter  the  extent  of  the  lands 
which  should  be  purchased.  Congress  will  then  be  able  to  see  the  size 
of  the  undertaking  before  it  begins  it. 

3.  It  is  a  problem   for  the  several  states,  not  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment. 

So  far  as  the  forests  are  necessary  to  insure  the  timber  supply, 
it  is  by  no  means  a  state  problem.  It  is  incumbent  upon  no  state  to 
provide  a  timber  supply  for  the  rest  of  the  country.  So  far  as  the 
forests  are  necessary  to  protect  the  watersheds  of  interstate  streams, 
it  is  not  a  state  but  a  federal  problem.  By  no  sort  of  logic  can  it  be 
established  that  North  Carolina  must  protect  the  headwaters  of  the 
Yadkin  and  Catawba  Rivers  because  the  water  powers  of  South  Caro- 
lina are  being  damaged,  nor  that  West  Virginia  must  protect  the 
Monongahela  because  Pennsylvania,  Ohio  and  Kentucky  suffer  on  ac- 
count of  the  floods  which  arise  on  its  denuded  watersheds.  Practically 
all  the  important  Appalachian  streams  are  interstate  streams.  Both 
from  the  standpoint  of  timber  supply  and  stream  protection,  the  situa- 
tion is  one  which  distinctly  calls  for  federal  action. 

4.  Appropriations  for  this  purpose  will  open  the  door  to  fraud. 

In  the  light  of  the  government's  experience  with  its  present  com- 
mercial operations,  this  objection  cannot  be  supported.  The  govern- 
ment to-day  through  its  own  employees  is  conducting  far  larger  enter- 
prises without  the  slightest  trace  of  corruption,  indeed  in  the  settled 
conviction  that  it  is  thereby  pursuing  the  most  economical  course. 


82         JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS   OF   HORTICULTURE 

Government  engineers  are  building  the  Panama  Canal  and  great  irri- 
gation works ;  are  building  them  cheaper,  better  and  faster  than  private 
capital  could  build  them.  Government  engineers  and  architects  are 
building  great  battleships;  are  building  them  as  efficient  in  all  respects 
and  as  cheaply  and  quickly  as  private  contractors  can  do. 

Let  it  not  be  said  that  the  government  cannot  handle  large  busi- 
ness affairs.  Present  experience  shows  that  it  can.  If  it  can  dig  the 
Panama  Canal,  construct  great  irrigation  systems,  and  build  enormous 
battleships,  it  can  purchase  and  manage  the  lands  necessary  for  national 
forests  in  the  Appalachian  Mountains. 

EVENING  SESSION. 
CHAIRMAN,  PROFESSOR  S.  A.  BEACH. 

CIVIC  HORTICULTURE  AND  CIVIC  IMPROVEMENT. 
WARREN  H.  MANNING,  BOSTON,  MASS. 

Civic  improvement  is  the  work  that  organizations  and  individuals 
plan  and  execute  to  improve  their  surroundings  and  civic  horticulturists 
are  they  who  so  cultivate  ornamental  plants  in  public  or  private  grounds 
as  to  give  pleasure  and  benefit  to  the  public  as  well  as  themselves. 
Ornamental  plants  become  in  the  hands  of  the  civic  horticulturists  the 
garments  of  civic  improvement,  for  they  clothe  parks,  buildings,  lawns, 
streets  and  landscapes. 

The  broadest  aspect  of  the  civic  improvement  movement,  however, 
lies  in  permanently  preserving  and  improving  the  natural  beauty  of  a 
region  and  securing  convenient  and  attractive  access  thereto  for  all 
citizens.  Toward  this  end  vast  numbers  of  powerful  interests  have  been 
unconsciously  working  while  they  have  at  the  same  time  been  destroy- 
ing nature. 

Railroads  are  now  the  national  parkways  to  nearly  all  sections  hav- 
ing special  landscape  interests,  and  they  recognize  very  clearly  the  value 
of  such  interests  as  an  asset  in  the  extension  of  their  lines,  in  the 
acquirement  of  land  adjoining  their  right  of  way  to  protect  beautiful 
outlooks  and  in  the  almost  universal  improvement  of  right  of  way  and 
station  grounds;  they  often  are  the  only  attractive  objects  in  unattrac- 
tive outlooks.  Their  rails  have  now  largely  superseded  the  river  and 
canal  with  all  their  charm  for  the  traveler,  but  having  a  limited  out 
look,  as  compared  with  the  rapidly  shifting  vistas  and  broad  panoramas 
of  the  train. 

Electric  roads,  state  roads,  merging  into  national  roads  are  open 
ing  up  regions  of  even  greater  beauty  and  variety  and  electric  cars  and 
automobiles  are  making  the  range  of  pleasure  driving  so  wide  now  that 
a  fraction  of  a  day's  ride  only  is  required  to  cover  a  city  park  system, 
although  some  cities  have  included  therein  as  much  as  one-sixth  of  their 
total  area  and  the  average  park  area  of  the  fourteen  cities  above  300,000 
population  is  one  in  twenty-eight  acres. 

City  systems  have  broadened  to  county  systems,  as  in  Essex  County, 


NATIONAL    COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  83 

New  Jersey,  and  the  Boston  Metropolitan  system  extends  into  four 
counties.  There  are  also  many  state  parks,  water  supply,  irrigation  and 
forestry  reservations  of  a  thousand  acres  more  or  less,  national  military 
reservations  of  various  kinds — some  of  six  thousand  acres  or  more, 
and  the  national  forest  reserves  of  140,000,000  acres. 

The  engineers,  civil,  railroad,  hydraulic,  army  and  others ; — the  for- 
ester, the  landscape  designer,  industrial  concerns,  real  estate  men  and 
many  men  in  business  and  professional  life,  who  have  urged  or  directed 
movements  for  public  reservations  have  been  responsible  for  much 
of  this. 

The  horticulturists  have  generally  taken  an  interest  in  this  work 
and  the  profession^  that  have  been  especially  identified  with  the  devel- 
opment of  public  reservation  systems ;  such  as  the  designers  of  land- 
scapes and  foresters,  have  been  quite  largely  recruited  from  the  horti- 
culturists' ranks.  Dr.  John  A.  Warder,  who  first  warned  against 
forest  destruction  and  organized  one  of  the  first  national  forestry 
associations,  was  a  horticulturist.  The  Honorable  J.  Sterling  Morton, 
who  established  Arbor  Day,  was  a  farmer.  Frederick  Law  Olmsted, 
who  established  the  modern  practice  of  designing  landscapes,  went  from 
his  farm  to  plan  and  build  Central  Park  in  New  York. 

I  have  indicated  progress  already  made  toward  a  national  system 
of  public  reservations,  that  will  include  and  connect  the  present  isolated 
holdings,  as  well  as  a  large  share  of  land  having  great  natural  beauty, 
but  from  which  little  revenue  can  be  produced  from  crops  or  industries 
under  private  ownership.  It  is  such  land  of  little  value  that  should  be 
included  in  public  reservations,  rather  than  that  having  a  high  produc- 
tive and  taxable  value. 

The  permanent  value  of  such  work  in  any  locality  is  greatly  enhanced 
if  the  town  and  the  individuals  direct  their  efforts  toward  the  ultimate 
completion  of  a  comprehensive  plan  that  has  been  carefully  studied  out 
in  advance.  Such  a  plan  ought  to  be  made  to  fit  the  surface,  that  is, 
to  take  advantage  of  the  natural  beauty  of  surface,  contour,  rock  out- 
crop, water  and  vegetation,  transportation  lines,  drainage,  buildings  and 
other  artificial  structures,  and  provide  for  the  future  development  of 
such  features  in  a  way  that  will  gain  for  the  community  the  maximum 
of  convenience  and  beauty,  with  a  minimum  of  expenditure  in  con- 
struction and  maintenance.  Such  plans  should,  of  course,  be  sufficiently 
elastic  to  provide  for  the  contingencies  of  time.  Generally  in  such  a 
plan  upon  an  irregular  surface,  roads  would  follow  valleys,  gradually 
climb  the  slopes  on  curving  lines  and  easy  grades  with  a  minimum  of 
cut  and  fill,  while  on  flat  lands  they  would  be  straight  with  diagonals 
running  from  centres  on  lines  of  greatest  travel. 

This  outline  of  the  broader  aspect  of  civic  improvement  should  lead 
to  a  greater  appreciation  of  the  importance  of  civic  horticulture.  Each 
horticulturist,  and  you  will  note  that  my  definition  may  include  about 
every  one  who  can  control  a  piece  of  land  or  a  window  box,  should 
be  vitally  interested  in  and  help  to  advance  the  civic  improvement  move- 
ment of  his  own  locality.  The  work  of  landscape  and  ornamental  gar- 
deners, employed  by  towns  and  commissions,  is  planned  and  executed 


84          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

for  the  public  benefit  and  many  owners  of  private  land  do  consider  the 
public  interest  in  the  arrangement  and  planting  of  their  own  ground ; 
this  even  to  their  own  disadvantage  when  they  throw  their  own 
grounds  wholly  open  to  public  gaze. 

If  this  civic  horticultural  work  could  be  directed  toward  the  ulti- 
mate execution  of  the  preconceived  plan  referred  to  above,  very 
much  more  effective  results  would  come  from  the  same  expenditure 
of  effort  and  money.  In  such  a  plan,  after  main  subdivisions,  the 
means  of  intercommunication,  park,  garden  and  play-ground  reserva- 
tions, the  location  of  civic  and  other  centres,  are  prepared  to  cover 
the  town  site  and  its  future  extension,  there  should  follow  detailed 
plans  and  estimates.  Of  these  the  civic  horticulturist  would  be  espe- 
cially interested  in : 

(1)  The  treatment  of  natural  vegetation  to  develop   its  greatest 
beauty  and  usefulness  and  the  treatment  of  artificial  plantations.     Upon 
such    details    would    be    indicated    roads,    trails,    vistas,    thinning,    the 
selection  of  trees  and  shrubs  and  the  additional  plantations  of  exotic 
trees,  shrubs  and  herbs. 

(2)  Street  plans,  showing  trees  best  suited  to  each  street  and  an 
arrangement  of  trees  that  will  give  desirable  uniformity,  but  not  nec- 
essarily a   uniform   spacing  that  disregards   egress   and  outlook  from 
private  places. 

(3)  Suggestions   for  the  treatment  of   front  lawns   that  in   resi- 
dential sections  are  so  often  kept  open  through  the  length  of  the  street, 
giving  a   greater  breadth  and   openness   that   distinguishes   our  streets 
in  a  manner  that  is  distinctly  American.     The  objection,  however,  to 
this  is,  that  the  owner  has  no  privacy  in  his  home  grounds. 

(4)  Suggestions  to  owners  to  overcome   the   above  objection  by 
establishing  screening  plantations  between  the  front  lawn  that  is  held 
open  for  the  pleasure  of  the  public  and  the  back  lawn  and  gardens 
made  private  for  the  family. 

(5)  Suggestions    regarding  the   use   of   enough   of  one  plant   in 
these  private  plantations  to  give  each  street  a  special  distinction.     One 
street    for   example   having  lilacs   at   intervals   throughout   its    length, 
another  magnolias,  another  hydrangeas,  etc. 

It  is  such  suggestions  to  the  general  public,  backed  by  an  efficient 
organization  and  a  definite  plan,  that  will  help  to  make  the  whole  town 
a  park  and  secure  the  active  interest  and  assistance  of  all  citizens.  I 
conceive  it  to  be  the  duty  of  village  improvement  societies  and  park 
superintendents  to  direct  their  attention  to  the  preparation  of  such 
an  organization  and  plan  rather  than  to  expend  all  their  efforts  and 
money  on  a  small  area  or  upon  minor  improvements  at  haphazard,  or 
upon  general  clearing  up  operations,  street  lighting,  and  the  like,  that 
should  be  executed  by  the  town  officers,  through  their  regular 
appropriations. 

There  is  now  a  rapid  trend  toward  the  ideal  I  have  outlined,  'not 
only  in  cities,  but  in  many  small  towns.  My  own  experience  is  that 
with  such  plans  and  public  interest,  the  whole  aspect  of  a  community 
will  be  transformed  in  from  five  to  eight  years.  There  must  of  course 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  85 

be  a  leader  in  the  movement,  however,  who  is  big  enough  to  grasp  the 
whole  conception  and  persistent  enough  to  hold  fast  against  criticism 
until  it  is  well  under  way.  It  always  means  self-sacrificing  effort  on 
the  part  of  the  few,  as  does  any  advanced  movement  for  the  general 
welfare,  but  the  results  and  the  ultimate  general  approval  of  those 
whose  opinions  are  of  value,  will  well  repay  this  effort.  I  believe  it 
is  not  necessary,  however,  to  place  the  work  on  a  sentimental  ground 
for  almost  invariably  the  execution  of  a  well  considered  plan  leads  to 
increases  in  land  values  that  make  it  a  good  business  proposition. 

No  body  of  men  are  in  a  better  position  than  the  ones  before  me 
to  advance  such  work,  for  many  of  you  are  educators  in  charge  of 
parks,  experiment  stations,  schools  and  large  horticultural  establish- 
ments frequented  by  many  people  of  influence  and  education.  You  can 
help  advance  the  school  garden  and  vacant  lot  farms,  one  of  the  most 
potent  new  agencies  for  the  development  of  efficient  civic  horticultural 
knowledge  among  the  mass  of  people.  You  can  lead  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  such  plans  as  I  have  outlined.  You  can  supply  a  vast  amount 
of  useful  information  through  bulletins  and  catalogues  to  those  that 
you  reach  directly. 

There  is  need  in  the  promotion  of  the  work  of  civic  horticulturists 
of  a  better  class  of  material  for  plantations.  We  need  pedigree  trees  of 
various  species.  I  need  not  describe  to  you  the  numerous  forms  of 
the  American  elm.  Some  with  upright  trunks  and  branches  and  a 
graceful  canopy  of  foliage  forming  ideal  street  trees.  Others  round 
and  symmetrical.  Others  drooping  to  the  ground.  These  forms  of  the 
American  elm  are  not  cultivated.  We  only  have  forms  of  European 
trees  propagated  at  high  cost  by  grafting  and  offered  in  small  quan- 
tities. We  need  also  the  various  marked  forms  of  the  red  cedar,  some 
very  narrowly  fastigiate,  others  broad  spreading,  for  our  formal 
gardens. 

Those  who  know  how  many  of  the  nursery  purple  beeches  and 
Weir's  cut  leaf  maple  are  raised  from  seed  and  who  have  noted  the 
predominance  of  a  special  form  of  native  trees  about  the  parent  will 
recognize  the  practicability  of  raising  pedigree  trees. 

More  care  is  needed  to  secure  hardy  forms  of  native  trees.  For 
example,  trees  of  the  Douglass  spruce  from  the  Oregon  and  California 
coast  range  are  not  hardy  in  the  East,  whereas  those  from  the  Rocky 
Mountains  are.  Black  walnut,  red-buds,  calycanthus  and  other  plants 
further  north  are  quite  hardy. 

There  is  need  of  a  more  general  knowledge  of  the  value  of  native 
collected  plants  in  artificial  plantations  and  the  success  which  attends 
the  collection  of  many  species  if  done  in  a  proper  manner.  It  opens 
the  way  for  pleasure  outings  in  which  the  family  may  secure  material 
for  the  decoration  of  their  home  grounds  and  wild  gardens.  When 
you  know  that  practically  all  the  trees,  shrubs  and  hardy  perennials 
planted  upon  these  Exposition  Grounds  are  natives  collected  on  or  near 
these  grounds;  that  many  of  the  ground  cover  plants  were  collected 
in  the  beginning  at  the  cost  of  thirty  cents  per  thousand,  the  decidu- 
ous shrubs  collected  and  planted  as  low  as  $20.00  per  thousand,  you 


86          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

will  recognize  that  the  natives  may  fill  a  place  both  as  regards  cost 
and  immediate  effect  that  nursery  plants  cannot  fill 

Nurserymen  should  grow  more  well  furnished  large  specimens  of 
shrubs  and  trees,  more  large  and  well  trained  vines,  more  formally 
trained  shrubs  and  trees  for  gardens  and  pots  and  they  should  recog- 
nize that  there  is  a  growing  demand  for  the  healthy  vigorous  forms 
that  are  easily  propagated  and  can  be  sold  at  a  low  rate  in  large  quan- 
tities, and  a  declining  demand  for  abnormal  horticultural  forms  that 
are  expensive  and  difficult  to  propagate. 

In  closing  let  me  call  attention  to  the  statement  of  the  morning's 
session  regarding  the  need  of  a  greater  unity  of  action  of  all  the 
various  occupations  represented  by  this  Congress. 

Mr.  Withers :  Mr.  Chairman,  I  should  be  glad  to  say  a  few  words 
in  reference  to  Mr.  Manning's  able  paper  on  Civic  Improvements.  1 
have  been  connected  with  civic  improvement  work  in  different  parts 
of  this  country  for  some  years,  and  I  heartily  endorse  all  that  Mr. 
Manning  has  said. 

There  is  one  subject  that  I  am  particularly  interested  in  just  now, 
and  that  is  the  treatment  and  care  of  the  trees  in  different  towns  and 
cities  of  the  United  States.  I  am  at  this  time  engaged  on  the  restora- 
tion of  one  of  the  largest  and  most  historical  trees  in  the  country, 
which  is  called  the  "Liberty  Tree  of  Maryland."  It  is  a  tulip  tree 
(Liriodendron  tulipifera).  It  is  104  feet  3  inches  high,  37  feet  3  inches 
in  circumference,  at  the  base.  It  has  a  cavity  which  is  open  on  one 
side  to  a  height  of  20  feet,  the  opening  will  average  4  feet  in  width. 
After  cleaning  out  the  decayed  wood,  it  leaves  the  tree  standing  on  a 
shell  the  average  thickness  of  which  is  about  15  inches.  This  great 
cavity  extends  from  the  main  trunk  up  into  a  huge  branch  the  entire 
length  of  which  is  fifty  feet  six  inches  from  the  ground  level.  After 
cleaning  it  out  and  washing  with  a  fungicide  we  filled  this  great 
cavity  with  reinforced  concrete,  fifty-one  tons  of  sand,  stone,  bricks, 
cement  and  iron  being  used.  The  foundation  of  this  concrete  centre 
extended  2J/£  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  ground.  The  age  of  this 
tree  is  estimated  at  over  six  hundred  years.  It  was  under  this  tree 
that  the  treaty  between  the  Colonists  and  the  Susquehannock  Indians 
was  signed  in  1654.  The  Liberty  speech  was  made  here  about  177G, 
General  Washington  being  present  at  the  time.  A  reception  was  given 
to  General  Lafayette  in  its  shade  in  1825.  In  1820  a  native  of  Annap- 
olis, a  Mr.  Claude,  wrote  an  ode  dedicated  to  this  old  tree  bidding  it 
good-bye  because  he  thought  it  could  not  live  much  longer.  He  spoke 
of  its  crumbling  away,  which  proves  that  a  great  cavity  must  have 
existed  at  that  time  in  its  base. 

During  the  Civil  WTar  the  soldiers  were  encamped  around  the  tree, 
the  college  building  being  used  for  hospitals,  and  while  the  soldiers 
were  encamped  there  a  large  branch  fell,  tearing  away  a  great  piece 
out  of  its  side,  causing  the  cavity  to  extend  upward.  Our  filling  is 
now  in  place,  and  there  are  no  dead  limbs,  or  decayed  spots,  that  have 
not  been  removed  or  treated.  With  a  slight  feeding,  I  think,  the  tree 
is  good  for  another  five  or  six  hundred  years.  I  mention  my  work  in 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  87 

this  connection  because,  I  think,  it  is  the  largest  undertaking  of  its 
kind  ever  attempted.  I  also  think  that  it  is  the  largest  tree  anywhere 
in  the  eastern  or  middle  states,  and  should  be  glad,  if  any  member 
of  the  Council,  should  he  find  a  larger  one,  let  me  know  of  it. 

We  are  also  treating  a  fine  avenue  of  tulip  trees  on  the  estate  of 
Mr.  James  T.  Woodward,  at  Collington,  Md. ;  amongst  them  are  some 
giants,  one  or  two  of  them  being  about  nine  feet  in  diameter  with 
some  very  bad  cavities  to  fill.  We  are  also  treating  the  street  and 
campus  trees  around  St.  John's  College,  Annapolis,  Md.  Here  I  find 
great  damage  done  to  the  trees  by  the  wires  of  the  electric  light, 
telephone  and  telegraph  companies ;  they  having  used  the  trees  as  guys 
for  their  poles,  the  wires  are  girdling  and  fast  killing  the  huge  branches, 
and  in  many  cases  the  entire  tree.  I  called  the  attention  of  the  author- 
ities to  this  fact,  and  advised  them  that  the  companies  should  remove 
their  wires,  but  if  they  wished  to  accommodate  the  different  companies 
by  allowing  them  to  use  the  trees  as  guys  for  their  poles  they  could  do 
so  without  any  injury  to  the  tree,  and  I  showed  them  how  an  eye- 
bolt  could  be  put  through  the  tree  using  a  plate  and  nut  at  the  strain- 
ing point,  which  we  would  countersink  into  the  tree,  and  then  cap 
with  cement,  so  that  the  bark  would  grow  over  the  bolt.  The  com- 
panies could  then  transfer  their  wires  from  the  tree  to  the  eye  of 
this  bolt,  which  would  give  them  a  much  more  perfect  guy  than  the 
ruinous  method  adopted.  All  parties  were  very  much  pleased  with 
this  suggestion,  and  the  companies  authorized  us  at  once  to  place  the 
bolts  in  position  at  their  expense. 

I  think  that  every  town  and  city  in  the  United  States  should  insist 
wherever  the  wires  of  the  electric  light,  telephone  or  telegraph  must 
run  through  or  near  the  trees  that  the  running  of  these  wires  through 
the  trees  and  the  guying  of  the  poles  to  the  trees  should  be  done  under 
the  supervision  of  a  competent  forester.  In  doing  so  the  trees  could 
be  utilized  without  any  injury  to  them  whatever. 

The  preservation  of  the  tree,  I  think,  is  one  of  the  essentials  of 
civic  improvement.  Mr.  Manning  in  his  article  mentioned  the  fact 
unknown  to  the  general  public,  that  there  was  a  great  deal  of  private 
interest  in  civic  improvements.  This  is,  I  think,  clearly  shown  in  the 
case  that  I  have  called  to  your  attention. 

The  work  I  am  doing  on  the  old  Liberty  tree  at  Annapolis  is  the 
gift  of  James  T.  Woodward,  of  the  Hanover  National  Bank  of  New 
York.  Mr.  Woodward  is  much  interested  in  St.  John's  College,  and 
in  the  old  Liberty  tree.  Few  people  realize  how  great  a  gift  this 
work  is. 

LANDSCAPE  GARDENING. 
JOHN  C.  OLMSTED,  BROOKLINE,  MASS. 

Landscape  Gardening  is  the  art  of  improving  grounds  for  use 
and  enjoyment  with  due  regard  to  beauty. 

Landscape  gardeners  should  be  educated  in  architecture,  civil  engi- 
neering, and  horticulture— in  architecture,  because  all  works  of  land- 


88          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

scape  gardening  should  be  designed  or  planned  in  a  way  analogous 
to  that  in  which  buildings  are  planned  to  combine  utility  with  beauty; 
in  civil  engineering,  because  to  plan  the  improvement  of  ground  involves 
surveys,  topographical  maps,  draughting  of  plans,  profiles,  cross  sec- 
tions, drainage  and  masonry  plans,  specifications  and  other  technical 
training  such  as  civil  engineers  get;  in  horticulture  (including  arbori- 
culture), because  almost  every  landscape  gardening  design  calls  for 
either  trees,  grass,  shrubs,  vines,  hardy  and  tender  plants  or  some  or 
all  of  these. 

To  many  it  may  seem  unreasonable  to  place,  in  the  education  of 
landscape  gardeners,  a  training  in  architectural  design  ahead  of  a 
knowledge  of  civil  engineering  and  of  horticulture.  It  is  true  that 
most  of  the  time  of  architectural  students  and  practitioners  is  taken 
up  with  matters  that  would  be  of  comparatively  little  or  no  use  to 
the  landscape  gardener,  but  in  the  absence  of  adequate  means  for 
thoroughly  educating  landscape  gardeners  in  the  esthetic  side  of  their 
profession,  a  training  in  architectural  design  is  at  present  the  best 
available  for  the  purpose.  It  must  not  be  inferred  that  architects  can 
easily  practice  landscape  gardening.  The  fact  that  they  appreciate 
certain  fundamental  esthetic  principles,  no  more  fits  them  to  prac- 
tice landscape  gardening  than  landscape  painting  or  any  other  art  to 
which  those  principles  apply.  It  is  certainly  better  that  most  architects 
should  confine  themselves  to  architecture. 

Civil  engineers  should  not  be  too  much  elated  by  the  statement 
that  a  good  knowledge  of  and  experience  in  certain  branches  of  civil 
engineering  is  more  important  in  the  education  of  landscape  gardeners 
in  the  ability  to  design  well  than  horticultural  knowledge.  Indeed 
such  a  claim  may  seem  paradoxical  when  we  call  to  mind  how  many 
obstrusively  ugly  works  of  civil  engineering  there  are  in  all  parts  of 
this  country,  and  on  the  other  hand  how  much  horticulturists  are  con- 
cerned with  beautiful  flowers  and  garden  plants. 

The  reason  why  a  certain  kind  of  engineering  knowledge  is  more 
important  to  the  landscape  gardener  than  horticulture,  as  a  means  of 
developing  his  general  designing  ability,  is  that  it  has  to  do  with  larger 
and  more  complex  problems  of  fitting  land  for  human  use. 

The  ability  required  to  successfully  design  important  municipal, 
railroad,  river,  canal  and  harbor  works  and  other  extensive  plants, 
involves  a  capacity  for  investigating  physical  and  human  and  finan- 
cial conditions,  requirements  and  limitations  and  for  evolving  a  logical 
solution  of  each  problem  which  is  similar  in  a'  general  way  to  the 
capacity  possessed  by  successful  architects.  Engineering  schools  do 
more  to  educate  that  capacity  than  the  ordinary  methods  of  educat- 
ing horticulturists  do. 

The  most  essential  esthetic  requirement  of  conspicuous  works  of 
civil  engineering  is  that  they  should  accomplish  their  purposes  in  an 
appropriate,  pleasing  and  satisfactory  way, — not  that  they  should  be 
made  pretty  by  means  of  ornament  applied  as  an  after-thought. 

The  main  object  of  this  paper  is  to  call  the  attention  of  horticul- 
turists to  that  particular  idea — the  importance  of  the  esthetic  princi- 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE 


89 


pie  that  all  visible  works  of  man  should  be  expressive  and  beautiful 
in  their  general  form  and  main  features  before  they  are  ornamented 
with  mere  decorative  detail. 

Esthetic  ideas  are  difficult  to  explain  without  illustrations. 

Among  large  constructions,  we  find  a  general  regard  for  good 
appearance  has  always  controlled  ship  builders.  They  made  many  mis- 
takes, from  a  scientific  point  of  view;  they  did  not  always  make  fast 
ships;  they  compelled  sailors  and  passengers  to  submit  to  unnecessary 
inconveniences;  but  they  strove  always  for  such  beauty  of  form  and 
outline  of  hull  and  fittings,  rake  of  masts,  taper  of  spars,  cut  of  sails 
that  sailing  vessels  have  always  been  the  delight  of  artists.  And  how 
conspicuously  absent  is  all  surface  decoration  and  applied  ornament! 

It  is  shocking  to  imagine  the  hideous  job  the  engineer  of  an  ele- 
vated railroad  would  make  of  an  order  to  build  and  rig  a  steel  sail- 
ing ship,  if  he  should  entirely  ignore  the  traditions  of  ship  building 
and  use  stock  dimension  rolled  steel  beams,  bars,  angle  irons,  tubes, 
rods,  and  so  forth,  as  he  uses  them  in  his  elevated  railroad  trusses 
and  columns  and  brackets !  How  much  simpler  and  cheaper  it  would 
be  for  the  deck  of  a  ship  to  be  straight  from  bow  to  stern  and  to  pitch 
straight  from  center  to  sides  like  a  flat  tin  roof!  Yet  all  the  demands 
of  the  shrewd  owners  for  economy,  and  all  the  power  of  competition 
were  unable  to  make  shipwrights  for  countless  generations  build  a 
ship  that  way.  They  knew  it  would  be  ugly  and  they  wouldn't  do  it. 

The  beauty  of  the  typical  sailing  vessel  is  a  good  illustration  of 
the  superiority  of  beauty  of  form  and  proportion,  of  graceful  adapta- 
tion to  useful  purposes  over  a  purely  scientific  and  economical  but 
ugly  general  form  superficially  decorated.  Let  us  hope  that  investors 
and  public  opinion  will  more  and  more  encourage  civil  engineers  to 
take  to  heart  this  great  esthetic  principle  that  visible  structures  should 
be  beautiful  in  form  whether  there  is  superficial  decoration  or  not. 

If  a  knowledge  of  horticulture  and  its  allied  crafts  and  sciences  is 
to  be  regarded  as  less  essential  to  the  landscape  gardener  than  a  train- 
ing in  general  architectural  designing  and  in  certain  selected  branches 
of  civil  engineering,  it  is  not  intended  thereby  to  belittle  the  import- 
ance of  a  practical  knowledge  of  hardy  trees  and  other  plants  used  in 
landscape  gardening  works  and  of  their  cultivation,  cost  and  esthetic 
qualities.  Such  knowledge  is  absolutely  essential. 

The  point  sought  to  be  enforced  is  that  the  landscape  gardener 
should  be  educated  to  design  first  the  general  plan  for  a  given  work, 
then  its  constituent  parts  and  details  in  such  a  way  that  they  will 
produce  a  consistent,  well  balanced,  harmonious  whole  and  to  always 
keep  in  mind  that  the  inherent,  essential  beauty  of  the  whole,  and  its 
obvious  and  graceful  adaptation  to  its  main  purposes  are  far  more 
important  than  its  superficial  ornamentation. 

Horticulture  is  the  art  of  the  cultivation  of  garden  plants  as  dis- 
tinguished from  farm  cfops.  Those  horticulturists  who  raise  or  sell 
plants  for  their  beauty  are  florists.  Most  florists  advise  as  to  or  direct 
the  use  of  ornamental  plants.  Many  florists  also  branch  out  into  the 
practice  of  landscape  gardening  because  their  technical  knowledge 


90          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

enables  them  to  do  so  well  enough  to  satisfy  those  who  employ  them. 
Similarly  druggists  sell  drugs  without  prescriptions  of  physicians,  deal- 
ers sell  spectacles  without  prescriptions  of  professional  oculists. 

Nevertheless  all  who  can  afford  it  should  get  advice  on  matters 
of  landscape  design  from  the  best  available  professional  landscape 
gardener,  just  as  they  should  get  advice  as  to  matters  of  health  from 
a  competent  physician.  Florists  should  therefore  avoid  competing  with 
competent  landscape  gardeners. 

This  principle  of  specialization  of  knowledge  and  its  application 
to  human  affairs  is  well  known  to  florists,  but  for  one  reason  or  an- 
other they  do  and  will  continue  to  practice  landscape  gardening  and  it 
must  be  acknowledged  that  to  a  certain  extent  and  under  certain  circum- 
stances they  are  justified  in  doing  so. 

The  direction  in  which  the  work  of  florists  in  the  field  of  land- 
scape gardening  is  usually  most  open  to  criticism  is  in  its  esthetic 
qualities. 

The  mind  of  the  florist  is  usually  occupied  either  by  practical 
details  or  in  considering  the  beauty  of  particular  flowers  or  plants. 
This  tends  to  unfit  him  as  a  landscape  designer.  If  he  is  to  practice 
landscape  gardening,  he  should  subordinate  beauty  of  plants  to  the 
beauty  of  the  composition  or  design  as  a  whole.  In  doing  so  he  can- 
not succeed  unless  he  studies  first  the  requirements  of  the  case,  the 
utilization  of  its  opportunities  for  landscape  beauty,  its  financial  lim- 
itations and  so  on.  Then  he  must  form  in  his  mind,  or  on  paper,  a 
general  plan  or  solution  of  the  problem  embodying  such  qualities  as 
fitness,  harmony,  contrast,  simplicity  or  intricacy,  proportion,  relation 
of  masses,  colors  and  so  on. 

But  even  if  he  refrains  from  designing  landscape  the  florist  should 
be  an  artist. 

The  very  existence  of  florists  depends  upon  the  public  demand  for 
beautiful  flowers  and  garden  plants.  If  the  florist  is  to  succeed  in 
the  esthetic  side  of  his  business  he  must  be  endowed  with  certain 
esthetic  faculties  and  cultivate  them  to  the  point  of  efficiency.  A  mere 
love  of  flowers  is  not  sufficient,  any  more  than  an  ear  for  music  would 
indicate  the  existence  of  the  qualities  required  for  a  successful 
musician.  There  must  be  the  power  to  observe  and  study,  to  imagine 
combinations  and  modifications  of  things  seen  or  learned  of,  to  men- 
tally test  them  by  various  standards  and  rules  and  by  the  known  effects 
of  similar  things  that  have  been  or  can  be  seen.  There  must  be  the 
critical  faculty,  the  weighing  of  advantages  and  disadvantages,  the 
power  to  curb  impulses  and  first  impressions  until  reason  has  passed 
judgment.  Perception,  selection,  memory,  imagination,  reason,  appli- 
cation, patience  and  above  all,  will  power,  are  some  of  the  more  im- 
portant qualities  required  for  a  successful  designing  florist.  All  these 
faculties  gain  by  experience  and  training  and  by  a  favorable 
environment. 

The  visual  memory  must  be  stored  with  beautiful  things.  Nature 
is  a  great  storehouse  of  beautiful  things,  as  well  as  of  ugly  things, 
so  a  lad  should  be  brought  up  in  a  beautiful  bit  of  country  rather 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  91 

than  amid  long  blocks  of  plain  brick  houses.  But  there  is  much  in 
nature  that  is  beautiful  that  cannot  be  used  in  the  florist's  work. 
Lichens  and  toadstools,  for  instance,  include  varieties  having  beautiful 
colors,  yet  they  are  not  used  in  carpet  bedding  owing  to  practical 
difficulties.  Therefore  the  visual  memory  is  stored  by  visiting  gardens 
and  exhibitions,  and  by  studying  illustrations,  horticultural  books  and 
trade  catalogues. 

The  selective  faculty  is  trained  by  determining  what  is  worth 
remembering.  We  must  put  some  things  in  the  front  row  of  the 
memory,  so  to  speak,  where  they  can  be  availed  of  instantaneously. 
Other  things  are  set  behind  and  labeled  by  some  bit  of  detail,  a  leaf 
or  a  bit  of  color  or  a  word  or  a  taste  or  smell  or  by  name.  For  very 
many  things  that  may  be  useful  the  memory  must  refer  back  to  the 
cyclopedia,  an  indexed  periodical,  a  scrap  book,  so  and  so's  catalogue, 
and  so  on. 

The  visual  memory  is  trained  by  repetition,  by  close  application 
forced  by  the  will  power.  It  is  aided  by  association  with  other  sen- 
sations, by  the  sentiments,  by  novelty,  by  superlative  characteristics 
and  so  on. 

The  imagination  is  based  on  memory.  We  can  imagine  nothing 
that  has  not  come  into  our  minds  through  the  senses  or  that  is  not  due 
to  some  combination  of  ideas  previously  so  gained.  Hence  the  im- 
portance of  storing  the  memory  with  things  worth  remembering.  The 
imagination  must  be  guided  by  reason  and  will  power  to  be  useful, 
but  it  must  be  exercised  and  developed  mainly  in  youth,  even  by  the 
aid  of  beautiful  things  that  are  not  useful.  The  imagination  is  stimu- 
lated by  beautiful  things  to  imagine  other  beautiful  combinations  and 
modifications.  An  ancient  necklace  or  a  decorated  book  cover,  seen 
in  a  museum  of  art,  may  excite  the  imagination  many  years  after  in 
the  designing  of  flower  decoration.  That  may  be  both  a  pleasant  and 
a  useful  training  of  the  young  florist's  imagination,  but  the  study  of 
veined  marble,  or  cloud  effects  or  a  specimen  of  marine  alga  might 
be  pleasant  but  probably  useless  to  the  florist. 

The  reasoning  faculty  may  be  trained  in  various  ways,  but  may 
best  be  trained  by  the  study  of  cause  and  effect  in  the  natural  sciences 
dealing  with  the  materials  to  be  handled  or  controlled  by  the  florist. 
If  he  learns  scientifically  why  certain  color  combinations  are  pleasing 
and  certain  others  displeasing  he  can  act  as  the  result  of  reasoning 
when  the  time  comes  instead  of  trusting  to  his  own  sensations  or  to 
what  people  say  or  to  tradition.  If  he  has  studied  agricultural  chem- 
istry and  plant  physiology  and  meteorology  he  may  sometimes  avoid 
mistakes  which  others  fall  into  through  the  misapplication  of  tradi- 
tional wise  saws,  which  often  for  the  sake  of  brevity  or  of  a  catching 
rhyme  convey  a  half  truth  or  even  a  falsehood. 

The  training  of  other  faculties  need  not  be  enlarged  upon.  The 
inference  to  be  drawn  is  that  if  the  florist  is  to  have  such  an  educa- 
tion as  will  fit  him  to  produce  beautiful  floral  decoration  and  to  make 
his  vocation  compare  in  esthetic  standing  with  that  of  the  architect 
and  the  artist,  mural  decorator  and  (let  no  offense  be  taken)  the 


92          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

landscape  architect,  he  should  cultivate  his  creative  esthetic  faculties 
at  least  as  thoroughly  and  by  much  the  same  means  of  art  schools, 
museums,  reading,  converse  with  artists,  travel  and  observation  and  by 
the  solution  of  many  problems  of  artistic  design. 


HORTICULTURAL  SCHOOLS  AND  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS. 
DR.  A.  C.  TRUE,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

In  the  United  States  education  and  research  in  horticulture  are 
mainly  carried  on  in  connection  with  the  state  agricultural  colleges 
and  experiment  stations  and  the  United  States  Department  of  Agri- 
culture. Some  horticultural  work  is  done  by  all  of  the  sixty  experi- 
ment stations  in  the  continental  United  States  and  in  Alaska,  Hawaii, 
and  Porto  Rico,  except  in  the  State  of  Wyoming,  whose  station  is 
located  more  than  7,000  feet  above  sea  level  and  has  thus  far  under 
taken  work  in  only  a  few  restricted  lines  of  plant  production.  As 
reported  to  the  Office  of  Experiment  Stations  for  1906  the  stations 
employed  101  horticulturists.  The  station  work  in  horticulture  covers 
a  very  wide  range.  It  includes  all  branches  of  horticulture  and  a 
great  variety  of  horticultural  plants,  both  in  the  greenhouse  and  in 
the  field.  It  ranges  from  an  attempt  to  select  and  develop  plants  suited 
to  arctic  conditions,  as  in  part  of  Alaska,  to  experiments  with  man- 
goes, cacao,  coffee,  and  numerous  other  tropical  plants,  as  in  Hawaii 
and  Porto  Rico.  Practically  all  kinds  of  horticultural  plants  suited  to 
temperate  and  semi-tropical  conditions  are  receiving  some  attention. 
As  regards  its  character,  the  work  varies  from  scientific  research  of  a 
high  order  on  fundamental  problems,  for  the  determination  of  general 
principles  or  underlying  causes,  to  the  simplest  practical  tests  of  varie- 
ties and  cultural  methods.  In  addition,  our  stations  are  doing  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  work  in  chemistry,  botany,  vegetable  pathology, 
and  entomology  directly  relating  to  horticulture. 

All  but  seven  of  the-  stations  are  organized  as  departments  of  the 
agricultural  colleges  and  are  thus  brought  into  close  relations  with, 
and  in  fact  are  usually  in  organic  union  with,  the  horticultural  depart- 
ments of  instruction  in  these  colleges. 

The  methods  and  results  of  station  horticultural  work  are  there- 
fore easily  and  naturally  brought  to  the  attention  of  students  of  hor- 
ticulture in  these  institutions,  and  many  of  these  students  have  some 
participation  in  the  station  work.  The  progress  of  agricultural  research 
in  horticulture  in  foreign  countries,  as  well  as  in  the  United  States,  is 
systematically  reported  every  month  to  our  horticultural  investigators, 
teachers  and  students  through  the  Experiment  Station  Record  so  that 
on  its  information  side  at  least  there  is  little  excuse  if  instruction  in 
horticulture  in  this  country  does  not  keep  pace  with  the  progress  of 
horticultural  research  throughout  the  world. 

Practically  all  the  agricultural  colleges  give  some  instruction  in 
horticulture.  The  extent  and  scope  of  this  instruction  varies  greatly 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF  HORTICULTURE  93 

in  different  institutions.  We  have  yet  at  least  one  living  example 
of  such  a  monstrosity  as  a  professor  of  agriculture,  horticulture  and 
botany,  and  in  a  number  of  colleges,  and  even  in  a  university,  one  man 
has  plenty  of  room  to  recline  at  full  length  on  the  settee  of  two  such 
vast  subjects  as  horticulture  and  forestry.  But  we  are  doing  better 
than  we  used  to  in  this  respect,  and  in  recent  years  the  general  move- 
ment for  the  differentiation  and  specialization  of  agricultural  sub- 
jects and  instructors  has  affected  and  greatly  benefited  horticultural 
courses  in  our  colleges. 

Fourteen  colleges  announce  four-year  horticultural  courses  in  con- 
nection with  which  an  effort  has  been  made  to  systematize  instruction 
in  horticulture  and  co-ordinate  the  work  in  this  subject  with  that  in 
other  subjects  in  the  curriculum  so  as  to  make  a  more  or  less  satis- 
factory technical  course. 

In  addition,  several  state  universities  have  broad  elective  courses 
and  offer  a  sufficient  number  of  courses  in  various  branches  of  horti- 
culture to  enable  the  student  to  arrange  quite  thorough  technical 
courses  and  even  to  specialize  to  a  considerable  extent  in  some  horti- 
cultural line  to  which  he  proposes  to  devote  himself  as  a  profession. 

In  some  of  the  colleges  the  course  which  horticultural  students 
must  pursue  in  seeking  a  bachelor's  degree  is  prescribed  during  two  or 
three  years  and  electives  are  offered  in  the  third  and  fourth  years  in 
such  a  way  as  to  enable  the  student  to  specialize  in  horticulture  at 
least  to  a  certain  extent. 

Short  courses  in  horticulture  are  offered  by  19  colleges.  These 
courses  vary  in  duration  from  two  years  to  two  weeks. 

At  the  University  of  Illinois,  where  the  elective  system  prevails, 
29  courses  are  offered  under  the  head  of  horticulture,  besides  a  some- 
what elaborate  professional  course  in  landscape  gardening.  Five  of 
these  courses  are  of  a  general  and  somewhat  elementary  character,  19 
are  for  advanced  undergraduates  and  graduates,  and  five  are  exclu- 
sively for  graduates. 

Among  the  special  courses  in  this  list  are  those  in  spraying,  viti- 
culture, nut  culture,  evolution  of  horticultural  plants,  experimental 
horticulture,  amateur  floriculture,  and  landscape  design.  Two  courses 
in  forestry  are  also  included  under  horticulture. 

The  horticultural  faculty  proper  includes  one  professor,  three 
assistant  professors,  and  one  instructor.  There  is  no  professor  of 
horticulture,  but  a  professor  and  an  assistant  professor  of  pomology,  as- 
sistant professor  of  olericulture,  assistant  professor  of  landscape  gar- 
dening and  an  instructor  in  floriculture.  The  professor  of  botany  and 
two  field  assistants  in  pomology  also  take  part  in  the  horticultural 
instruction. 

Cornell  University  offers  13  courses  in  horticulture  and  the  hor- 
ticultural faculty  consists  of  one  professor,  one  assistant  professor  and 
two  instructors. 

The  University  of  Missouri  offers  9  courses,  given  by  one  profes- 
sor, one  assistant  professor,  and  two  instructors. 


94         JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS   OF  HORTICULTURE 

Michigan  Agricultural  Colleges  offer  17  courses  (two  of  which 
are  especially  for  women),  given  by  one  professor  and  four  instructors. 

Massachusetts  Agricultural  College  offers  9  courses,  given  by  one 
professor  and  three  instructors,  and  is  making  special  effort  to  develop 
work  in  landscape  gardening. 

The  University  of  California,  with  a  horticultural  faculty  of  two 
professors,  two  assistant  professors,  and  one  instructor,  offers  8 
courses,  two  of  which  are  for  graduate  students. 

The  University  of  Ohio  and  the  Texas  Agricultural  College,  with 
one  professor  and  one  assistant  professor,  each  offer  13  courses  in 
horticulture. 

While  there  are  certain  advantages,  as  regards  the  higher  lines  of 
work  in  the  organization  of  horticultural  courses  in  connection  with 
colleges  and  universities,  the  instruction  in  such  institutions  will  inevit- 
ably be  largely  of  a  theoretical  and  severely  technical  character.  It 
should,  therefore,  be  supplemented  by  the  establishment  of  special 
horticultural  schools  in  which  young  men  and  women  may  be  trained 
for  the  practical  business  of  horticulture.  Some  attempts  have  been 
made  to  do  this  in  this  country,  but  we  have  not  as  yet  any  horticul- 
tural schools  of  this  character  which  will  compare  with  those  at 
Ghent  and  Vilvorde  in  Belgium,  or  the  National  School  of  Horticul- 
ture at  Versailles,  France. 

The  station  horticulturists  are  doing  a  large  amount  of  useful 
work  and  they  enjoy  in  large  measure  the  confidence  and  esteem  of 
practical  horticulturists.  With  the  increase  of  the  resources  of  the 
stations  they  are  getting  better  facilities  for  work,  and  are  enabled  to 
specialize  .more  and  to  undertake  more  substantial  enterprises.  They 
are  now  giving  more  attention  to  problems  connected  with  a  broader 
organization  of  their  work  and  with  the  conduct  of  more  fundamental 
investigations.  On  the  one  hand  they  desire  to  cover  more  completely 
the  field  of  horticulture  and  on  the  other  to  establish  the  practice  of 
horticulture  more  securely  on  a  rational  and  scientific  basis.  To  accom- 
plish the  first  of  these  objects,  the  necessity  for  more  workers  and 
increased  specialization  is  apparent.  To  attain  the  second  there  will 
be  required  the  multiplication  of  more  thorough  investigations  and  the 
acquirement  more  largely  of  the  scientific  spirit  and  attitude. 

Besides  the  special  studies  made  by  individual  workers,  there 
should  be  a  broad  inquiry,  preferably  by  some  organization  of  horti- 
culturists, with  a  view  to  determining  in  a  general  way  the  scope  and 
limitations  of  scientific  horticultural  work.  In  other  words  there 
should  be  an  organized  effort  to  define  and  establish  a  science  of  horti- 
culture, differentiated  from,  but  indissolubly  linked  with  the  practice  of 
horticulture.  This  is  all  the  more  important  because  the  great  body  of 
practical  horticulturists  embraces  more  intelligent  and  progressive  men 
than  any  other  great  group  of  workers  in  the  general  field  of  agricul- 
ture. I  have  lately  heard  of  one  of  our  leading  scientific  horticultur- 
ists expressing  his  difficulty  in  keeping  pace  with  the  professional  ad- 
vancement of  practical  horticulturists  and  doubting  whether  there  were 
any  subjects  to  be  discussed  among  scientific  horticulturists  which 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  95 

might  not  be  just  as  well  discussed  in  assemblies  of  practical  horticul- 
turists. I  do  not  believe  that  he  expected  to  be  taken  too  literally,  but 
there  is  food  for  thought  in  this  remark. 

To  achieve  and  maintain  leadership  the  experiment  station  horticul- 
turists must  be  able  to  do  certain  things  better  than  the  practical  men, 
and  as  I  believe  must  chiefly  depend  on  their  ability  to  establish  prin- 
ciples, to  work  out  methods  and  to  discover  causes  or  the  rationale  of 
practice.  When  they  leave  this  field  and  put  themselves  in  competition 
with  commercial  horticulturists  they  run  great  risks  of  failure.  It  is 
only  in  rare  cases  that  experiment  station  horticulturists  are  likely  to 
have  the  means  to  make  tests  and  selections  and  to  do  other  things 
done  in  commercial  practice  on  as  broad  a  scale  as  the  commercial 
growers  do  them.  How  often  have  experiments  in  horticulture,  as  well 
as  other  lines  of  agriculture,  fallen  into  contempt  because  they  were 
undertaken  on  too  small  a  scale.  The  besetting  sin  of  the  station 
horticulturist  has  been  the  yielding  to  the  temptation  to  undertake  too 
many  things  at  one  time,  to  try  this  and  that  and  the  other  thing  in  a 
picayunish  way.  His  more  or  less  valid  excuse  too  often  has  been 
that  many  of  these  things  were  forced  upon  him  by  the  imperative  de- 
mands of  his  horticultural  constituency. 

Both  parties  must  learn  more  thoroughly  the  proper  functions  and 
limitations  of  experiment  station  work  in  horticulture.  The  station 
man  must  come  to  see  more  clearly  that  his  proper  work  is  to  attack 
problems  which  the  practical  man  is  not  prepared  to  undertake  and 
the  latter  must  recognize  that  it  is  folly  to  impose  additional  burdens 
on  workers  already  overloaded  and  that  his  efforts  should  rather  be 
mainly  directed  toward  increasing  funds  and  workers  in  horticulture  at 
the  stations.  As  an  aid  to  the  discussion  of  the  problems  connected 
with  the  establishment  of  the  science  of  agriculture  room  was  made  for 
a  course  in  'horticulture  at  the  National  Graduate  School  of  Agricul- 
ture held  at  the  University  of  Illinois  in  1906,  and  provision  for  a 
similar  course  is  being  made  for  the  session  to  be  held  at  Cornell  Uni- 
versity and  the  Geneva  Experiment  Station  in  1908. 

With  the  enlargement  of  the  scientific  basis  of  horticulture,  mainly 
through  the  broadening  work  of  the  experiment  stations,  it  should  be 
possible  to  organize  instruction  in  horticulture  in  a  sounder  pedagogical 
manner  and  to  extend  this  instruction  both  inside  and  outside  the  col- 
leges so  as  to  reach  many  more  students  and  benefit  horticultural  prac- 
tice much  more  widely.  The  formulation  and  discussion  of  horticul- 
tural courses  for  different  grades  of  schools  should  be  encouraged.  A 
valuable  contribution  in  this  line  was  made  by  Professor  F.  W.  Rane  in 
his  paper  before  the  Association  of  American  Agricultural  Colleges  and 
Experiment  Stations  at  its  meeting  at  Washington  in  1905  (Office  of 
Exp't  Stat.  Bui.  165).  The  preparation  of  horticultural  text-books, 
manuals  and  illustrative  materials  should  also  be  promoted. 

Especially,  efforts  should  be  made  to  secure  the  more  thorough 
organization  and  equipment  of  horticultural  departments  in  some  of 
the  agricultural  colleges,  located  in  states  where  horticulture  is  a  great 
agricultural  industry.  We  need  more  of  such  specialization  of  develop- 


96         JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

ment  by  agreement  among  our  agricultural  colleges.  While  all  of  them 
would  do  well  to  maintain  respectable  departments  of  agronomy,  horti- 
culture and  animal  husbandry,  one  or  the  other  of  these  lines  might 
properly  be  emphasized  in  individual  institutions  in  accordance  with 
its  relative  local  importance.  Thus  in  New  York  and  California  and  a 
few  other  states  we  may  reasonably  expect  the  development  of  horti- 
cultural departments  or  schools  more  comprehensive  and  thorough  than 
anything  in  this  line  elsewhere  in  the  world.  State  boundaries  should 
not  prevent  students  from  assembling  themselves  in  large  numbers 
where  they  can  receive  the  instruction  of  the  most  competent  special- 
ists under  the  most  favorable  conditions. 

I  believe  there  is  plenty  of  opportunity  for  every  state  agricul- 
tural college  to  make  itself  pre-eminent  in  some  line  of  education  or 
research,  and  thus  while  doing  good  service  to  its  state  also  greatly 
benefit  the  nation. 

Dr.  Galloway :  I  have  been  greatly  interested  in  Dr.  True's 
statements  relative  to  education  and  training  along  horticultural  lines. 
There  is  one  feature  of  this  work,  however,  that  has  not  been  touched 
upon  here  and  I  would  like  to  call  attention  to  it.  I  mean  the  real  or 
apparent  gap  between  the  thoroughly  trained  practical  horticulturist, 
especially  the  man  who  is  engaged  in  intensive  lines  of  work,  and  the 
man  who  has  been  trained  at  one  of  our  colleges  in  the  sciences  under- 
lying horticulture. 

For  a  good  many  years  I  have  been  occupied  in  securing  men  and 
fitting  them  into  places  in  our  work  in  the  Department  of  Agriculture. 
Some  of  the  men  who  come  to  us  from  the  agricultural  colleges  are 
pretty  well  trained  in  the  sciences  underlying  horticulture,  but  I  believe 
I  can  say  that  all  come  to  us  with  a  woeful  lack  of  appreciation  of  the 
fact  that  practical  horticulturists  who  have  been  for  years  working  in 
intensive  lines  have  accumulated  a  vast  amount  of  valuable  informa- 
tion which  would  be  exceedingly  useful  if  accepted,  digested  and  used 
by  the  scientifically  trained  mind.  It  is  to  be  regretted,  however,  that 
few,  if  any,  of  the  young  men  who  come  to  us  have  any  just  appre- 
ciation of  the  value  of  this  information,  so  easily  available.  On  the 
contrary  it  is  not  unusual  for  these  young  men  to  assume  an  air  of 
superiprity,  both  in  matters  of  science  and  matters  of  practice,  which 
has  a  tendency  to  isolate  them  from  the  practical  man.  A  curious  fact 
about  the  whole  question  is  that,  as  a  rule,  the  practical  man  under- 
stands the  situation  perfectly,  but  out  of  respect  for  the  things  which 
these  young  men  represent,  he  is  too  considerate  to  complain.  Not  so 
with  the  young  man  from  the  college.  He  is  imbued  with  the  absolute 
necessity  of  impressing  his  knowledge,  or  sometimes  lack  of  knowledge, 
on  the  practical  man  to  the  end  that  it  brings  about  a  separation  of 
interests  that  ought  to  be  avoided. 

I  attribute  this  difficulty  largely  to  a  lack  of  proper  training  in 
the  early  educational  work.  My  experience  has  been  that  men  who 
have  come  up  from  the  proper  horticultural  environment,  or,  in  other 
words,  who  have  lived  as  it  were  in  horticulture  prior  to  their  going  to 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  97 

college,  give  us,  as  a  rule,  our  best  type.  I  enter  the  plea,  threfore, 
for  instruction  that  will  bring  these  fundamental  facts  to  the  minds  of 
students  in  such  a  way  that  they  will  appreciate  and  understand  them 
when  they  leave  college.  It  would  seem  to  me  that  this  National  Coun- 
cil of  Horticulture  might  do  good  service  by  bringing  about  such  a 
movement. 

Air.  Kendel :  Mr.  Chairman,  the  more  I  have  to  do  with  this 
matter  of  school  gardens  the  more  I  believe  that  the  beginnings  of 
gardening  will  have  to  be  taught  in  the  public  schools  of  our  cities. 
District  schools  are  too  small  to  make  the  necessary  rivalry  that  city 
schools  have,  to  carry  on  such  work  successfully. 

Our  Home  Gardening  Association  of  Cleveland,  O.,  made  an  ex- 
periment this  year  that  has  been  successful  enough  to  encourage  us 
very  much.  We  secured  the  use  of  a  three-acre  tract  of  land  in  the 
heart  of  the  city  and  the  committee  that  was  placed  in  charge  of  it 
fenced  off  about  one  acre,  built  a  good  tool  house,  hauled  eighty  loads 
of  manure  on  it  and  plowed  it  in.  We  divided  this  area  into  four  sec- 
tions, each  section  into  five  plots,  with  a  boy  for  each  plot.  Our  plan 
was  to  make  this  garden  a  training  school  for  boys  who  wished  to 
make  gardening  a  business,  which  was  to  stand  in  the  same  relation 
to  the  school  gardens  as  the  high  schools  do  to  the  grammar  schools. 
We  wanted  boys  that  had  had  a  preliminary  training  of  a  year  or  two 
in  the  school  gardens  to  continue  their  training  in  advance  lines.  We 
decided  to  make  comparative  tests  of  a  number  of  varieties  of  different 
kinds  of  vegetables,  which  could  not  be  done  in  the  schools  on  account 
of  the  necessary  small  beds  available,  giving  each  group  of  five  boys 
all  the  varieties  and  placing  each  such  group  in  competition  with  the 
other  three.  Each  boy  had  six  beds  5x22  feet  and  each  group  tested 
about  fifteen  varieties  of  lettuce,  as  many  peas,  perhaps  a  dozen  varie- 
ties of  radish  and  the  same  of  beans  and  beets.  They  also  had  two 
varieties  of  tomatoes  and  peppers  and  one  of  egg  plant,  sweet  corn  and 
later  on  turnips.  Each  boy  had  at  most  three  of  each  kind. 

They  were  shown  how  to  grow  successive  crops  on  most  of  these 
beds.  Radish  was  sown  between  the  rows  of  lettuce  and  when  both 
were  gone,  beets  were  transplanted  into  the  same  beds  from  the  beds 
in  which  the  seeds  were  sown.  Beans  followed  peas.  Late  crops  of 
beans  were  also  planted  between  the  rows  of  corn  apparently  to  the 
benefit  of  both  crops. 

Of  course  we  made  a  few  mistakes  for  we  had  it  all  to  learn, 
nothing  like  it  having  ever  been  attempted  so  far  as  we  could  find  out. 
We  learned,  however,  and  this  is  in  line  with  the  point  already  referred 
to  by  one  of  the  speakers,  that  some  boys  have  the  knack  for  garden- 
ing and  will  make  gardeners  and  others  have  not. 

It  seems  to  me  we  will  not  have  to  wait  until  the  boy  is  grown  to 
find  out  if  he  is  suited  for  this  business;  it  develops  very  young.  I  do 
not  think  the  oldest  of  our  twenty  boys  was  over  fourteen  and  they 
ranged  down  to  nine  or  ten. 

Now  it  seems  to  me  that  in  our  school  gardens  is  the  place  to  begin 
to  educate  our  future  agricultural  college  professors  and  at  a  time 


98          JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

when  they  can  learn  easiest  and  this  Council  of  Horticulture  could 
undertake  nothing  more  worthy  than  to  foster  this  work  as  much  as 
possible,  if  we  really  wish  to  further  the  interests  of  agriculture  and 
horticulture  in  our  country. 

GOVERNMENT  AID  TO  HORTICULTURE. 
B.  T.  GALLOWAY,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

Under  the  title  assigned  to  me,  namely  "Government  Aid,"  I  pro- 
pose to  briefly  outline  the  scope  of  the  work  now  being  conducted  by 
the  national  government  along  purely  horticultural  lines.  Much  work, 
such  as  pathological,  entomological,  and  other  investigations,  is  also 
being  done,  but  as  these  lines  bear  indirectly  on  horticulture  and  have 
been  treated  by  others,  I  will  not  touch  upon  them  here.  To  make  my 
remarks  better  understood,  I  will  say  that  the  investigations  of  the 
Bureau  of  Plant  Industry,  where  practically  all  the  directly  horticul- 
tural work  of  the  government  is  being  conducted,  are  divided  into  defi- 
nite and  specific  projects.  These  projects,  for  administrative  purposes, 
are  grouped  under  separate  and  distinct  heads,  with  responsible  men 
placed  in  charge  of  each  group.  The  Department  of  Agriculture  is 
now  expending  for  purely  horticultural  work  approximately  $175,000  a 
year.  It  is  co-operating  with  a  large  number  of  state  experiment  sta- 
tions in  all  lines  of  the  investigations  which  will  be  briefly  described. 
The  groups  of  projects  which  we  will  now  discuss  are  as  follows: 

(1)  Horticultural  explorations. 

(2)  Introduction,    propagation    and    dissemination    of     seeds    and 
plants  secured  from  foreign  countries. 

(3)  Securing,  propagating  and  disseminating  new  and  rare  seeds 
and  plants  originated  in  this  country,  which  can  not    be  disseminated 
through  the  regular  channels  of  trade. 

(4)  Plant  breeding  investigations. 

(5)  Tropical  and  semi-tropical  work,  including  the  testing,  propa- 
'gation  and  dissemination  of  seeds  and  plants  adapted  to  tropical  sec- 
tions. 

(6)  General  horticultural  investigations  in   connection  with  farm 
management  work. 

(7)  Experimental  studies,  demonstrations  and  tests  at  the  Arling- 
ton Experimental  Farm. 

(8)  Systematic  horticultural  studies  in  reference  to  the  identifica- 
tion and  description  of  fruit  varieties,  the  simplification  of  fruit  nomen- 
clature, etc. 

(9)  Fruit  marketing  investigations,  including  experimental  export 
shipments  of  fruits. 

(10)  Fruit  transportation   and   storage — prevention    of    injury  in 
transit,  etc. 

(11)  Viticultural  investigations. 

(12)  Fruit     district     investigations— the     determination     of     the 
adaptability  of  fruit  varieties  to  different  sections. 


NATIONAL    COUNCIL    OF   HORTICULTURE  89 

(13)  Demonstrations,  experiments  and  other  work  in  connection 
with  plants  under  glass. 

(14)  Vegetable  variety  testing. 

(15)  Bulb  culture,  including  experiments  in  the  home  growing  of 
Dutch  and  other  bulbs  on  a  commercial  scale. 

(16)  School  garden  work. 

The  results  accomplished  in  these  lines  of  work  may  be  briefly 
summarized  as  follows : 

HORTICULTURAL   EXPLORATIONS. 

For  several  years  the  Department  of  Agriculture  has  conducted 
systematic  exploration  work  in  foreign  countries  in  search  of  rare  and 
valuable  seeds  and  plants  for  introduction  into  the  United  States.  We 
now  have  a  trained  explorer  in  the  regions  of  North  China  and  Man- 
churia searching  for  new  plants  and  seeds  worthy  of  being  trans- 
planted to  this  country,  and  for  wild  forms  of  our  cultivated  fruits 
and  vegetables  which  may  have  characters  of  hardiness  or  unusual 
vigor  that  will  make  them  useful  for  the  plant  breeders  of  the  United 
States.  Shipments  of  scions  and  of  seeds  representing  hundreds  of 
interesting  things  have  been  received  from  our  explorer  and  are  now 
growing  in  the  trial  grounds  of  the  Department.  New  hardy  persim- 
mon varieties,  interesting  varieties  of  the  English  walnut,  the  Chinese 
pistache,  wild  and  cultivated  apricots,  the  wild  peach  from  its  sup- 
posed original  home,  hardy  apples,  and  a  very  remarkable  lot  of  Chi- 
nese grape  varieties  are  among  the  most  recent  things  secured  in  this 
way.  The  persimmon  varieties  mentioned  are  of  the  seedless  type 
known  as  the  Pekin,  which  has  been  tested  and  found  to  be  superior 
in  flavor  to  any  of  the  Japanese  persimmons,  as  well  as  hardier. 

INTRODUCTION,    PROPAGATION    AND    DISSEMINATION    OF    SEEDS     AND    PLANTS. 
SECURED  FROM   FOREIGN  COUNTRIES. 

In  connection  with  its  foreign  exploration  work  the  Department 
maintains  field  testing  gardens  where  the  seeds  and  plants  so  secured 
may  be  propagated  with  a  view  to  their  dissemination  if  found  valuable. 
The  principal  one  of  these  gardens,  located  at  Chico,  Cal.,  is  more 
than  80  acres  in  extent  and  is  actively  engaged  in  the  testing  and  dis- 
tribution of  numerous  things  received  through  our  explorers.  A  total 
of  53,270  plants  were  distributed  from  this  garden  during  the  past 
year.  Much  attention  is  being  given  to  the  introduction  and  culture  of 
the  pistache  nut.  New  hardy  stocks  of  this  promising  dry-land  nut 
crop  have  been  secured  from  Turkestan,  China  and  the  driest  deserts 
of  the  Old  World.  About  16,000  seedling  pistache  trees  were  propa- 
gated at  the  Chico  garden  last  year  for  distribution  throughout  Cali- 
fornia, Texas,  Arizona  and  adjacent  localities. 

Another  promising  horticultural  crop  which  is  being  introduced  is 
the  date  palm.  The  palms  which  have  been  introduced  by  the  Depart- 
ment into  southern  California  and  Arizona  have  borne  hundreds  of 


100        JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

pounds  of  delicious  fruit,  indicating  that  our  work  on  this  unique 
desert  culture  will  pass  from  the  stage  of  a  pure  experiment  to  that 
of  a  new  industry.  We  are  now  conducting  extensive  life  history 
investigations  of  the  date  palm,  in  order  to  ascertain  its  exact  soil, 
climatic  and  cultural  requirements.  Similar  work  is  also  being  applied 
to  the  fig,  pistache  and  other  crops  with  promise  of  valuable  results. 
One  of  the  introductions  to  which  particular  attention  has  been 
given  is  the  Japanese  salad  plant  Udo,  which  grows  well  in  many  sec- 
tions of  this  country  and  is  handled  and  served  very  much  like  celery. 
To  secure  the  extensive  use  of  the  plant,  however,  will  probably  take 
considerable  time,  as  the  taste  for  it  is  a  cultivated  one,  like  that  for 
the  olive,  mango,  etc.  It  is  a  promising  introduction,  however,  and  is 
already  being  widely  disseminated  and  distributed. 

SECURING,    PROPAGATING    AND    DISSEMINATING    NEW    AND    RARE    SEEDS    AND 
PLANTS  ORIGINATED  IN  THIS  COUNTRY,   WHICH   CAN  NOT  BE  DISSEMI- 
NATED   THROUGH    THE    REGULAR    CHANNELS    OF    TRADE. 

This  work  is  largely  incidental  to  other  lines  of  horticultural  work, 
and  is  well  illustrated  by  our  annual  distribution  of  the  new  citrus 
fruit  varieties  developed  by  the  Department,  which  I  shall  presently 
describe.  It  is  our  policy  wherever  a  new  and  promising  variety  is 
secured  in  any  of  the  various  lines  of  work,  to  propagate  the  variety 
extensively  for  distribution  to  growers  for  co-operative  tests.  In  this 
way  we  are  able  to  ascertain  fully  the  worth  of  any  new  variety,  as 
well  as  to  exploit  it  where  it  is  likely  to  prove  the  most  valuable. 

PLANT   BREEDING   INVESTIGATIONS. 

Through  the  Bureau  of  Plant  Industry  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture is  conducting  much  work  in  the  improvement  of  plants  by  breed- 
ing and  selection.  A  number  of  horticultural  crops  are  receiving  atten- 
tion in  this  way,  including  citrus  fruits,  pineapples,  sweet  corn,  lettuce, 
potatoes,  etc.  The  work  on  citrus  fruits  and  pineapples,  which  has 
been  very  successful,  has  been  conducted  by  Dr.  Herbert  J.  Webber, 
formerly  in  charge  of  our  plant  breeding  investigations  and  now  in 
Cornell  University.  Many  valuable  new  sorts  of  citrus  fruits  have 
been  produced  by  hybridization.  The  new  hardy  oranges,  or  citranges, 
are  being  distributed  to  numerous  growers  for  trial.  These  form  an 
entirely  new  class  of  citrus  fruits,  and  are  believed  to  be  of  great 
value  for  cultivation  as  home  fruits  in  the  region  from  300  to  400  miles 
north  of  the  present  orange  belt.  In  addition  to  these,  other  new  fruits 
have  been  developed,  including  the  tangelo,  a  cross  between  the  pomelo 
or  grape-fruit  and  tangerine  orange,  as  well  as  new  limes,  tangerine 
oranges,  etc. 

The  pineapple  breeding  work  has  been  conducted  through  a  num- 
ber of  years,  and  has  resulted  in  the  development  of  new  sorts  pos- 
sessing many  improved  characters  that  are  believed  to  fit  them  for 
general  cultivation  and  to  recommend  them  above  other  varieties  now 
cultivated.  Among  them  are  a  number  of  smooth  or  spineless-leaved 


NO  ----- 


William  Stuart, 

NATIONAL    COUNCIL    OF   HORTICULlREw         101 


varieties,  very  distinct   from  the  Smooth  Cayenne,  which  was  t 
smooth-leaved  variety  cultivated  when  the  experiments  began. 

In  the  breeding  work  on  sweet  corn  the  object  has  been  to  secure 
improved  strains  for  canning  purposes.  In  certain  localities  it  has 
been  demonstrated  that  an  excellent  quality  of  sweet  corn  seed  can 
be  grown  and  that,  with  good  care,  it  will  germinate  much  better  and 
produce  better  than  seed  obtained  from  other  localities.  The  breeding 
work  with  lettuce  is  conducted  in  connection  with  other  intensive  hor- 
ticultural work,  and  many  promising  hybrids  have  been  secured.  This 
work,  in  which  I  have  been  personally  interested,  has  been  conducted 
during  the  past  three  or  four  years  by  Mr.  George  W.  Oliver,  who 
has  succeeded  admirably  in  crossing  lettuces  —  something,  so  far  as  I 
know,  never  attempted  before.  We  have  worked  largely  with  lettuces 
for  growing  under  glass.  Our  aim  has  been  to  secure  types  better 
adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  eastern  United  States  and  the  middle  west. 
Some  work  has  been  done  in  the  improvement  of  potatoes,  the  breed- 
ing of  rust-resistant  asparagus,  and  the  production  of  a  wilt-resistant 
watermelon.  These  lines,  however,  are  conducted  incidentally  to  other 
work  and  do  not  call  for  extended  comment. 

TROPICAL  AND  SEMI-TROPICAL  WORK,  INCLUDING  THE  TESTING,  PROPAGATION, 

AND  DISSEMINATION  OF   SEEDS  AND  PLANTS   ADAPTED  TO 

TROPICAL   LATITUDES. 

For  some  years  the  Department  has  devoted  considerable  atten- 
tion to  tropical  and  subtropical  horticulture,  and  we  now  have  two  sta- 
tions located  in  the  southernmost  portions  of  the  United  States.  The 
older  of  these  gardens  is  located  at  Miami,  Fla.,  the  other  having  only 
recently  been  established  on  the  Fort  Brown  Military  Reservation  at 
Brownsville,  Tex.  At  our  Miami  gardens  we  are  conducting  many 
lines  of  work  in  plant  improvement,  propagation,  acclimatization,  etc. 
Attention  is  here  being  given  to  the  propagation  of  the  mango,  avocado, 
guava,  and  other  tropical  fruits,  as  well  as  of  new  varieties  of  seeds 
and  plants  secured  by  exploration  in  foreign  countries.  Much  atten- 
tion is  also  being  given  to  the  propagation  of  citrus  fruits.  Frequent 
distributions  of  seeds  and  plants  for  trial  are  made  from  the  Miami 
gardens. 

At  our  Brownsville  garden  we  propose  to  ascertain  the  possibili- 
ties of  south  Texas  in  subtropical  horticulture,  and  work  is  already 
under  way  in  the  growing  of  citrus  fruits,  grapes,  the  date  palm,  etc. 

Some  work  on  tropical  fruits  and  vegetables  is  also  being  con- 
ducted in  connection  with  other  lines  of  work.  Especially  is  this  true 
in  relation  to  our  foreign  exploration  work,  the  many  new  varieties 
which  are  secured  being  sent  to  the  subtropical  gardens  for  trial. 

GENERAL     HORTICULTURAL     INVESTIGATIONS     IN     CONNECTION     WITH     FARM 
MANAGEMENT    WORK. 

In  connection  with  its  Farm  Management  Investigations  the 
Bureau  of  Plant  Industry  is  making  detailed  investigations  of  the 


102        JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

methods  of  cultivating  various  truck  and  garden  crops.  Considerable 
attention  is  being  given  in  this  way  to  potatoes.  The  results  obtained 
in  growing  potatoes  in  rotation  have  been  carefully  noted,  as  have  been 
the  fertilizer  requirements  and  other  features.  Some  attention  is  also 
being  given  to  the  marketing  of  farm  products,  and  on  the  diversifica- 
tion farms  conducted  by  the  Office  of  Farm  Management  a  detailed 
study  of  methods  of  truck  farming  has  been  made.  In  all  these  lines 
of  work  useful  information  is  being  obtained. 

EXPERIMENTAL    STUDIES.    DEMONSTRATIONS    AND    TESTS    AT    THE    ARLINCTOX 
EXPERIMENTAL    FARM. 

Several  years  ago  Congress  authorized  the  establishment  on  the 
Arlington  estate  in  Virginia,  which  is  within  easy  access  from  Washing- 
ton, of  a  general  experimental  farm  for  the  work  of  the  Department  of 
Agriculture.  This  farm  has  proved  of  great  value  to  the  work  of  the 
Department.  The  horticultural  work  now  under  way  at  the  farm 
includes  experiments  in  vegetable  and  fruit  growing,  the  growing  of 
vegetables  and  flowers  under  shade,  and  tests  of  various  garden  crops. 
The  fruit  nursery  on  the  farm  now  contains  several  thousand  trees, 
and  one  acre  of  the  farm  is  devoted  to  a  model  kitchen  garden.  Tests 
of  both  Irish  and  sweet  potatoes  are  being  made  to  determine  the  yield 
and  keeping  quality  of  various  sorts,  and  other  factors.  Similar  work 
is  also  being  conducted  in  co-operation  with  several  state  experiment 
stations.  During  the  past  year  the  Department  entered  into  a  co-opera- 
tive agreement  with  the  Virginia  experiment  station  in  the  establish- 
ment of  a  truck  station  near  Norfolk,  Va. 

Various  field  investigations  are  conducted  in  connection  with  the 
Arlington  farm,  and  an  important  feature  of  this  work  is  the  publica- 
tion of  Farmers'  Bulletins  dealing  with  the  cultivation  of  various  crops. 
Among  the  field  work  under  way  is  an  investigation  of  the  Bermuda 
onion  industry  in  Texas  and  .Louisiana,  demonstrations  in  the  growing 
of  truck  crops  on  rice  lands,  and  a  comprehensive  truck  crop  survey. 
For  the  latter  feature  Congress  provided  additional  funds  during  the 
past  year. 

SYSTEMATIC    HORTICULTURAL    STUDIES    IN     REFERENCE    TO    THE    IDENTIFICA- 
TION   AND   DESCRIPTION    OF    FRUIT    VARIETIES,    THE    SIMPLIFICA- 
TION  OF  FRUIT    NOMENCLATURE,   ETC. 

During  the  course  of  the  year  many  fruits  are  submitted  to  the 
Department  for  identification  and  description.  In  connection  with  this 
work  a  pomological  collection  is  maintained.  During  the  past  year 
3,596  fruits  were  submitted  for  examination  by  orchardists  and  fruit 
growers. 

Considerable  work  in  the  simplification  of  varietal  nomenclature 
has  been  carried  on,  and  several  catalogues  of  revised  terminology 
have  been  published.-  The  lack  of  simplicity  and  uniformity  in  nomen- 
clature of  American  fruits  has  been  in  the  past  a  source  of  great  losses, 


and  the  Department  is    co-operating  with  the  American   Pomological 
Society  in  the  purification  of  varietal  nomenclature. 

FRUIT 

B 

iorw? 

for  s< 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OK   HORTICULTURE  103 


FRUIT    TRANSPORTATION    AND    STORAGE — PREVENTION    OF    INJURY    IN    TRAN- 
SHIPMENTS  OF   FRUITS. 


Experimental  studies  of  the  methods  of  harvesting,  packing  and 
forwarding  perishable  fruits  have  been  conducted  by  the  Department 
for  several  years.  In  these  investigations  an  effort  is  made  to  ascer- 
tain the  relation  of  varieties,  packages,  methods  of  packing,  etc.,  to  the 
requirements  of  long  distance  shipment,  with  special  reference  to  con- 
ditions experienced  in  ocean  transit.  For  this  purpose  experimental 
export  shipments  of  fruits,  chiefly  to  European  markets,  have  been 
made  during  the  past  few  years.  The  export  trade  in  Bartlett  and 
other  early  pears  is  an  outgrowth  of  this  experimental  work,  and  the 
total  exports  of  this  fruit  now  approach  a  million  dollars  annually. 
Experimental  shipments  of  both  summer  and  winter  apples  have  also 
been  made,  and  the  practicability  of  establishing  an  export  trade  in 
these  fruits  has  been  demonstrated. 

FRUIT    TRANSPORTATION     AND    STORAGE — PREVENTION    OF    INJURY    IN    TRAN- 
SIT,    ETC. 

In  close  relation  to  the  fruit  marketing  work,  just  described,  the 
Department  is  carrying  on  extensive  demonstrations  of  improved 
methods  of  shipping  and  storing  perishable  fruits,  with  special  refer- 
ence to  the  citrus  fruit  industry  of  California  and  Florida.  Large  quan- 
tities of  oranges  handled  in  different  ways  have  been  under  observa- 
tion in  transit  in  order  to  determine  the  temperature  changes  that 
occur  in  the  fruit  and  in  the  air  of  the  cars.  It  is  planned  the  coming 
year  to  completely  equip  an  experimental  refrigerator  car  for  use  in 
this  work.  These  investigations  have  had  the  active  support  of  grow- 
ers, shippers,  and  transportation  interests  •  and  on  account  of  the 
thorough  organization  of  the  industry  it  has  been  possible  to  put  into 
practice  the  results  of  the  investigations.  Mechanical  injuries  to  the 
fruits  are  being  reduced ;  packing  houses  are  being  remodeled  in  the 
direction  of  simplicity;  and  the  transportation  companies  have  shown 
a  disposition  to  make  their  service  conform  to  the  facts  developed  by 
these  experiments. 

The  work  on  fruit  storage  has  been  conducted  as  incidental  to  the 
larger  work  on  transportation,  and  special  attention  has  been  given  to 
the  farm  storage  house  problem. 

Apart  from  the  regular  fruit  transportation  and  storage  investiga- 
tions, some  work  on  methods  of  curing  lemons  has  been  inaugurated 
during  the  past  year.  It  is  recognized  by  fruit  dealers  that  while  the 
American  lemon  is  in  most  respects  a  very  superior  fruit,  it  is  deficient 
in  keeping  qualities  after  it  reaches  the  market.  To  what  cause  this 
deficiency  is  due  is  an  open  question.  In  the  hope  of  getting  some 
light  on  it,  investigations  into  the  methods  of  handling  lemons  have 


104        JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

been  begun  in  southern  California.  The  work  has  been  of  a  prelimi- 
nary nature  but  has  developed  some  promising  lines  along  which  to 
attack  the  problem.  A  study  of  lemon  storage  will  be  a  necessary  for- 
ward step  in  this  work. 

VITICULTURAL  INVESTIGATIONS. 

For  several  years  past  the  Department  has  directed  a  special  effort 
toward  the  maintenance  and  upbuilding  of  the  grape  industry.  The 
chief  part  of  this  work  is  now  located  in  California,  although  consider- 
able attention  is  also  being  given  to  the  rotundifolia  grape  industry  of 
the  South.  In  California  we  have  a  number  of  co-operative  experi- 
mental vineyards  where  a  great  number  of  varieties  are  being  tested, 
including  specially  imported  European  stocks. 

A  considerable  part  of  this  work  consists  in  the  dissemination  of 
information  regarding  grapes  and  grape  products.  Several  publica- 
tions dealing  with  various  viticultural  problems  have  been  issued  from 
time  to  time,  and  a  great  quantity  of  correspondence  is  conducted  with 
co-operative  grape  growers  and  others. 

In  the  rotundifolia  grape  investigations  a  special  study  has  been 
made  of  the  various  requirements  of  this  type  of  grape.  The  marked 
differences  found  in  the  size,  color,  flavor,  and  quality  of  the  varieties 
in  cultivation,  most  of  which  are  wild  vines  or  accidental  seedlings, 
indicate  great  possibilities  of  improvement  under  systematic  effort,  and 
bid  fair  to  bring  into  profitable  culture  considerable  areas  of  unused 
land  in  the  south  Atlantic  and  gulf  states. 

FRUIT    DISTRICT    INVESTIGATIONS. 

This  work  is  directed  toward  the  determination  of  the  adapta- 
bility of  fruit  varieties  to  different  conditions  and  their  value  for 
specific  purposes  as  influenced  by  the  conditions  under  which  they  are 
grown.  Owing  to  the  nature  of  the  work  it  must  be  continued  through 
a  course  of  years  in  order  to  arrive  at  intelligent  and  conclusive  results. 
The  work  is  being  prosecuted  in  several  sections  of  the  country,  includ- 
ing the  Piedmont  and  Blue  Ridge  areas  of  the  southern  states,  the 
Shenandoah  and  Cumberland  valleys,  comprising  the  great  Appalachian 
valley,  and  the  Ozark  region  of  Missouri  and  Arkansas.  Chief  atten- 
tion is  being  devoted  to  orchard  fruits  in  these  regions. 

DEMONSTRATIONS,    EXPERIMENTS    AND    OTHER    WORK    IN    CONNECTION    WITH 
PLANTS    UNDER   GLASS. 

In  connection  with  its  general  greenhouse  work  the  Department 
carries  on  special  investigations  relating  to  the  growing  of  plants  under 
glass.  This  work  includes  experiments  in  forcing  tomatoes,  the  propa- 
gation of  tropical  fruits,  and  also  some  work  on  florists'  crops.  The 
latter  phase  covers  such  crops  as  carnations  and  chrysanthemums.  The 
Department  conducts  an  annual  chrysanthemum  exhibit  in  connection 
with  this  greenhouse  work,  which  is  largely  attended. 


NATIONAL    COUNCIL    OF   HORTICULTURE  105 

Some  work  on  greenhouse  crops  is  also  conducted  on  the  Arling- 
ton farm,  where  a  special  study  of  the  influence  of  heat,  light  and 
moisture  on  plants  grown  under  glass  is  being  made. 

VEGETABLE    VARIETY    TESTING. 

A  special  line  of  horticultural  work  which  has  been  conducted  for 
several  years  is  the  testing  and  standardization  of  American  varieties 
of  vegetables  and  the  publication  of  monographs  of  the  various  garden 
vegetables.  These  tests,  which  have  now  covered  a  period  of  ten 
years,  have  included  more  than  15,000  samples.  The  first  tests  were 
confined  to  experimental  plots  near  Washington,  D.  C,  but  in  recent 
years  the  scope  of  the  work  has  been  extended  to  all  sections  of  the 
country,  co-operation  with  the  state  experiment  stations  and  others 
being  largely  practiced.  Three  bulletins  have  been  prepared  contain- 
ing monographs  of  certain  vegetables,  the  most  recent  of  which,  now 
in  press,  is  devoted  to  the  American  varieties  of  garden  beans.  The 
object  of  this  work  is  to  establish,  as  far  as  practicable,  a  standard  of 
perfection  that  will  be  a  guide  in  making  selections  of  variety  types  and 
serve  as  an  authority  among  vegetables. 

This  descriptive  work  has  been  carried  on  in  a  general  way  with 
all  the  garden  vegetables,  but  before  publishing  a  monograph  of  a  cer- 
tain vegetable  it  is  necessary  to  determine  more  closely  the  exact  dif- 
ferences in  season,  productiveness  and  other  characters  which  are  in 
dispute  among  varieties,  as  well  as  to  decide  which  types  of  the  dif- 
ferent varieties  shall  be  adopted  as  the  correct  ones.  We  are  endeavor- 
ing here,  again,  as  in  the  work  previously  mentioned  with  regard  to 
fruits,  to  simplify  in  every  way  practicable  the  varietal  nomenclature  by 
adopting  approved  variety  names  and  by  recommending  the  discon- 
tinuance of  confusing,  long-worded,  or  inappropriate  names. 

For  a  number  of  years  the  Department  has  been  endeavoring  to 
ascertain  how  far  the  local  conditions  where  seed  is  grown  affect  the 
character  of  the  plants  developed  from  such  seed.  Special  work  of 
this  kind  has  been  carried  on  with  sweet  corn  and  cabbage. 

BULB   CULTURE. 

Investigations  are  being  carried  on  in  the  encouragement  of  the 
production  of  tulips,  narcissuses  and  hyacinths  on  the  Pacific  coast. 
At  the  present  time  three  gardens  are  being  maintained  in  that  region 
under  the  supervision  of  the  Department.  The  climatic  conditions  of 
the  Puget  Sound  region  are  especially  favorable  to  the  development 
of  tulip  and  narcissus  bulbs,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  corner  stone 
of  the  American  bulb  industry  will  soon  be  laid  in  that  region.  We 
are  co-operating  with  commercial  men  who  are  endeavoring  to  develop 
the  industry,  and  plans  are  already  under  way  for  a  considerable  exten- 
sion of  the  work. 

SCHOOL   GARDEN    WORK. 

For  a  number  of  years  the  Department  of  Agriculture  has  been 
interested  in  the  encouragement  of  school  garden  work.  To  this  end 


106        JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

it  has  co-operated  with  the  school  authorities  of  Washington  and  other 
cities  in  giving  special  information  regarding  horticultural  work.  In 
Washington  opportunities  have  been  given  the  Normal  School  students 
to  study  practical  horticulture  in  connection  with  the  work  being  car- 
ried on  in  the  Department  greenhouses  and  upon  the  Department 
grounds.  Aid  has  also  been  rendered  in  the  matter  of  lectures  before 
the  students.  From  80  to  100  Normal  School  graduates  finish  their 
course  each  year,  and  these  have  all  had  special  training  in  horticul- 
ture and  are  applying  this  training  in  the  teaching  of  the  graded 
schools.  Garden  work  as  a  system  of  manual  training  has  been  inaugu- 
rated, the  beautification  of  the  school  grounds  has  been  taken  up  and 
completed,  and  the  work  is  being  extended  to  the  beautification  and 
ornamentation  of  the  homes  of  teachers  and  pupils.  With  a  view  to 
extending  this  work  as  far  as  practicable  special  collections  of  seeds 
have  been  prepared  and  distributed  to  schools  throughout  the  country. 
Brief  discussions  of  the  aims  and  objects  of  the  school  garden  work 
have  been  published  and  are  distributed  with  the  seeds. 

The  foregoing  brief  summary  covers  the  main  features  of  work  in 
the  matter  of  government  aid  to  horticulture.  Necessarily  many  of 
the  details  have  had  to  be  omitted,  especially  those  relating  to  our  co- 
operation with  horticulturists  throughout  the  states  in  the  experiment 
stations  and  colleges,  and  with  private  individuals.  Altogether  I 
think  it  may  be  said  that  horticulture  is  receiving  attention  in  propor- 
tion to  other  lines  of  work.  Although  there  are  many  problems  yet  to 
be  undertaken  the  outlook  is  hopeful,  and  it  is  confidently  believed  that 
rapid  progress  will  be  made  in  the  future. 


FEDERATION  AND  CO-OPERATION. 
J.  C.  VAUGHAN,  CHICAGO,  ILL. 

Following  a  general  horticultural  meeting  at  the  World's  Fair,  St. 
Louis,  November  10th,  1904,  and  a  second  meeting  of  a  committee  of 
seven  at  Chicago,  July  20th,  1905,  the  National  Council  of  Horticulture 
was  organized.  Its  objects,  as  then  stated,  were: 

1. — To  fraternize  and  concrete  the  horticultural  interests  of  North 
America. 

2. — To  consider  questions  of  public  policy  and  administration  which 
are  common  to  these  organizations. 

3. — To  act  as  a  bureau  of  publicity  in  the  interests  of  reliable 
information  pertaining  to  horticulture  in  its  broadest  sense. 

Its  composition  is  as  follows : 

1. — The  membership  shall  consist  of  two  delegates  elected  or 
appointed  by  each  national  horticultural  society,  with  nine  delegates  at 
large. 

2. — The  Council  shall  elect  an  executive  committee  of  nine  persons, 
at  least  five  of  whom  shall  be  delegates  at  large. 


NATIONAL   COUNCIL   OF   HORTICULTURE  107 

This  Council  has  held  approximately  semi-annual  meetings  since 
that  date,  and  while  these  meetings  have  not  been  largely  attended, 
number  three  of  the  stated  objects  has  been  carried  forward  with  re- 
markable success,  mainly  through  the  earnest  and  unselfish  labor  of  its 
Secretary,  H.  C.  Irish. 

So  effective  and  obviously  valuable  to  the  seedsmen,  florists  and 
nurserymen  has  this  Publicity  Bureau  proven,  that  the  national  socie- 
ties representing  these  three  interests  have,  at  their  annual  meetings, 
after  full  consideration  and  discussion,  voted  liberal  sums  to  carry  on 
this  work,  and  I  believe  that  no  one  of  such  organizations  has  ever 
voted  similar  sums  for  a  work  practically  established  outside  of  its 
membership,  and  I  am  sure  that  no  cause  has  been  similarly  supported 
by  all  of  them. 

It  is  not  denied  that  any  one  of  the  horticultural  interests  in 
America  having  a  national  organization  could  undertake  similar  work, 
but  it  is  contended  that  with  the  moderate  funds  available  and  obtain- 
able from  each  society,  a  much  better  showing  can  be  made,  and  with 
greater  economy,  by  carrying  forward  the  work  as  it  has  been  under- 
taken by  the  Council,  and  its  position  in  this  regard  is  now  well  estab- 
lished. 

One  word  further  as  to  the  possibilities  and  value  of  this  enter- 
prise to  the  commercial  interests  above  mentioned.  So  urgent  has 
become  the  demand  for  reliable  horticultural  information  from  the 
leading  daily  and  weekly  newspapers  of  the  country,  that  bureaus 
have  been  organized  to  supply  this  information,  and  such  articles  are 
being  sold  regularly,  although  the  articles  supplied  by  the  Council  of 
Horticulture  have  been  sent  out  free.  I  am  satisfied  that  if  the  Coun- 
cil had  more  funds  to  work  with,  enabling  it  to  produce  desirable  news- 
paper articles,  these  having  so  far  been  written  free  of  charge,  that  we 
might  almost  establish  the  bureau  on  a  self-supporting  basis  by  selling 
some  of  the  articles  to  a  selected  list  of  the  largest  daily  newspapers 
It  will  be  readily  understood  that  the  articles  sent  out  under  the  author- 
ity of  the  Council  of  Horticulture  carry  weight  and  could  be  more 
readily  sold  than  those  undertaken  by  private  individuals. 

Now  as  to  the  second  object  for  which  the  National  Council  of 
Horticulture  was  organized — to  consider  questions  of  public  policy  and 
administration  which  arc  common  to  the  national  horticultural  organisa- 
tions. All  who  have  attended  with  reasonable  regularity  the  meetings 
of  our  national  societies  realize  how  much  time  is  spent  and  often 
wasted  on  discussion  of  subjects  most  properly  handled  by  committees, 
and  further  how  often  the  work  of  such  committees  is  the  same  in  the 
different  societies.  I  may  mention  as  examples  the-  subjects  civic 
improvement,  transportation,  customs,  postage  and  some  sides  of  the 
nomenclature  question.  Now  the  work  of  each  of  the  above  commit- 
tees from  a  single  society,  were  it  done  in  connection  with  another 
national  society,  would  be  much  more  effective,  and  still  more  were 
they  all  combined.  A  committee  on  customs,  or  on  transportation, 
with  the  backing  of  all  the  national  societies  in  horticulture,  would 
mean  something  when  presenting  their  claims  for  consideration  to  the 


108        JAMESTOWN    CONGRESS    OF   HORTICULTURE 

proper  authorities.  Instances  are  not  lacking  where  similar  combina- 
tions, representing  all  the  branches  of  a  great  industry,  have  appeared 
before  the  officials  of  a  great  national  exhibition  and  insisted  upon  and 
secured  the  proper  recognition  and  awards,  which  would  never  have 
been  given  them  or  even  have  been  considered,  had  not  such  a  general 
committee  been  in  existence. 

The  need  for  fair  consideration  of  horticultural  interests  at  the 
national  exhibitions  is  well  known  to  everyone  who  has  marked  the 
very  apparent  errors  in  buildings,  in  classifications,  and  in  premiums  at 
many  of  them,  and  certain  it  is  that  horticulture  in  its  broadest  sense 
has  not  been  rightfully  considered  at  these  exhibitions,  and  never  will 
be  until  our  interests  act  together  as  they  can  do  through  the  represen- 
tation they  now  have  in  the  National  Council  of  Horticulture,  by  regu- 
larly elected  delegates,  and  by  the  co-operation  which  this  brings  about. 

The  Council,  because  of  the  few  actual  workers  available  in  its 
ranks,  the  difficulty  of  frequent  meetings,  and  because  of  the  widespread 
locations  of  its  members  and  its  lack  of  funds  for  traveling  expenses, 
has  not  taken  up  actively  the  other  lines  of  its  work  above  mentioned, 
but  it  must  be  done,  and  the  growth  of  the  Council  and  the  willingness 
of  its  membership  to  contribute  funds,  prove  that  its  further  work  will 
surely  be  taken  care  of  in  the  reasonably  near  future.  As  soon  as  more 
frequent  meetings  can  be  had  and  a  fair  attendance  be  counted  on,  the 
broader  questions  of  nomenclature  and  international  co-operation  on 
similar  lines  will  be  in  order. 

It  is  not,  and  has  never  been,  the  object  of  the  Council  of  Horti- 
culture to  take  up  any  work  which  up  to  the  present  time  is  the  exclu- 
sive work  of  any  single  national  interest,  but  to  act  only  as  a  represen- 
tative body  of  these  various  interests  on  lines  which  are  common  to 
them  all  and  which  no  one  can  claim  the  right  or  privilege  to  take  up 
and  do  for  the  others.  For  instance,  the  organization  of  a  National 
Congress  of  Horticulture  would  hardly  be  the  duty  of  the  national  apple 
growers,  florists,  or  nurserymen,  but  can  well  be  conceded  as  coming 
within  the  province  of  a  council  like  this,  organized  and  supported  by 
these  separate  interests  and  made  up  in  its  membership  by  actual  dele- 
gates from  the  various  societies,  combined  with  noncommercial  members 
interested  in  the  educational  side  of  horticulture,  and  without  commer- 
cial interests,  against  whom  no  charge  of  commercialism  or  commer- 
cial interest  in  the  work  can  be  made. 

It  is  the  intent  of  the  Council  to  elect  from  its  noncommercial 
members  its  permanent  chairman.  While  the  present  temporary  chair- 
man is  from  the  commercial  delegates,  yet  it  has  been  his  aim  to  so 
conduct  the  affairs  of  the  Council  that  no  charge  of  commercialism 
could  be  made. 


STAMPED   "BLOW 


Binder 

Gaylord  Bros.,  Inc. 

Makers 
Stockton,  Calif 

P4T.  IAN  71  1908 


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Is 


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James- 


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LIBRARY,  ««HHM«tt||MMHWMM*-  DAVIS 
UNIVEESITY  OF  OALIFOENIA 


